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A HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
CLASSICAL PERIOD
VOL. I
General Editor:
S. N. DASGUPTA, C.I.E., M.A., PH.D. (CAL. et CANTAB.),
HONY. D.LITT. (ROME)
LATE GEORGE V PROFESSOR OF MENTAL AND MORAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA
AND LATE PRINCIPAL, GOVERNMENT SANSKRIT COLLEGE, CALCUTTA
Contributors to this Volume:
S. N. DASGUPTA, C.I.E., M.A., PH.D., D.LITT.
(Preface, Introduction, History of A {arpfeara Literature and Editor's Notes)
S. K. DE, M.A., D.LITT. (LOND.)
PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND BENGALI, UNIVERSITY OF DACCA
( History of Kavya Literature )
UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA
1947
(PRINTED IN INDIA)
FEINTED AMD PUBLISHED BY NISHITCHANDRA SEN,
SUPERINTENDENT (OFFG.), CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY PRESS,
48, HAZBA ROAD, BALLYGUNGR, CALCUTTA.
1343B~-Jime, 1947— A.
CONTENTS
BOOK I
CONTENTS, PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION
PAGE
CONTENTS ... ... ... ... iii
PREFACE ... ... ... ... v
INTRODUCTION
1. GENERAL REMARKS ... ... ... xiii-li
Functions of the sutas — sutas not repositories of
heroic poetry ... ... ... xiii
Artificiality — not an indispensable character of
Sanskrit Poetry ... ... ... xiv
Identification of Kavya as "ornate poetry" untenable xv
Alamkara in earlier literature ... ... xvi
Direct evolution of classical style from the Vedic
literature ... ... ... xvii
Continuity of the Kavya literature ... xviii
Literature in the first six hundred years of the
Christian era ... ... ... xix
Greater complexity of style in later times ... xix
Some characteristics of Sanskrit poetry — religio-
social restrictions on sociefy ... ... xxi
The development of the Dharma$dstra and the Srayti xxv
Effect of patternisation of life on literature ... xxviii
Varnasraraa ideals in Kalidasa ... ... xxx
Restriction of the scope of free love ... ... xxxii
Nature of the theme of subjects chosen ... xxxiv
K&lidasa's treatment of love of romances ... xxxv
The plot of the Sakuntald, and the view of Rabindra-
nath . . . xxxvi
IV CONTENTS
PAGE
Patternisation and insulation of Indian Society ... xxxviii
Function of poetry ... ... ... xl
Relieving features of Sanskrit poetry ... ... xli
Transcendent object of literary art ... ... xli
Aesthetic emotion ... ... ... xliii
Concept of Indian drama ... ... ... xlvi
The Mahdbharata and the Rdmdyana ... ... xlix
The essence of Kavya as the heightened expression
of experience ... ... H
2. SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF LITERATURE ... lii-cxxvi
Choice of subjects — Literature. and Life ... Hi
Fashionable life in early India ... Iv
Early academies ... ... ... Ivii
Life at the time of Barm ... ... ... Iviii
Gradual separation of city life from the life in the
villages ... ... ... ... Ix
Puranic legends — the source of the plots of Kavya Ixii
Love in Sanskrit poetry ... ... ... Ixiii
Rasa and Rasabhasa ... ... ... Ixiv
Growth of Indian civilisation from Vedic literature Ixv
The characteristics of Indian temperament ... Ixvi
Race peculiarities in the literature ... ... Ixviii
The idea of dharma ... ... ... Ixxii
Secular outlook and the doctrine of Trivarga ... Ixxiv
Dramatic art ... ... ... ... Ixxvii
Religious temperament and its effect on the choice
of plots ... ... ... ... Ixxix
Drama — types and characteristics ... * ... Ixxxii
The place of love in literature ... ... Ixxxix
Patternising tendency of Indian culture ... xc
Continuity of Indian culture ... ... tfciii
Ideal of dharma in law and politics ... ... xcvi
Types of literature ... ... ... xcix
Political conditions and the early poetry ... c
CONTENTS iv(a)
PAFE
Little Greek influence on Indian culture and
literature ... ... ... ciii
Extension of Indian Empire up to Khotan and
Afghanistan ... ... ... civ
Literature at the time of Kaniska ... ... cv
Rise of the Guptas ... ... ... cvii
Fa Hien's evidence regarding India's social condi-
tions and literature of the time ... ... cix
Gupta civilisation and colonisation by Indians ... cxi
Development of literature from the 7th to the 10th
century ... ... ... cxiii
Political and literary contact with the neighbouring
countries ... ... ... cxv
Political condition in India after Harsa ... cxvi
General review of the growth of Sanskrit literature cxvii
Literary Prakrt — a standardised language ... cxx
Was Sanskrit a spoken language ? ... ... cxxi
Difficulties of appreciating Sanskrit poetry ... cxxv
r
Nature in Sanskrit poetry ... ... cxxvi
BOOK II
KAVYA
CHAPTER I — ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS
* 1. The Origin and Sources of the Kavya ... 1
*^2. The Environment and Characteristics of the Kavya 18
^ 3. The Origin and Characteristics of the Drama ... 42
CHAPTER II — FROM A^VAGHOSA TO KALIDASA
1. A^vaghosa and his School ... ... 69
2. The Avadana Literature ... ... 81
3. The Literature of Tale and Fable ... ... b3
(a) The Pancatantra ... ... ... 86
, (6) The Brhatkatha of Gunadhya ... ... 92
4. The Dramas Ascribed to Bhasa ... ... 101
iv(b) CONTENTS
PAGB
'CHAPTKR III — KALIDISA ... 118
CHAPTER IV — SUCCESSORS OF KALIDASA IN POETRY
1. The Erotic Satakas of Amaru and Bhartrhari ... 156
2., The Stotra-Satakas of Bana, Mayura and others ... 166
-^3. The Mahakavya from Bharavi to Magha ... 173
W<z) Bharavi ... ... ... 177
^(b) Bhatti ... ... ... 183
*-{c) Kumaradasa ... ... ... 185
v(d) Magha ... ... ... 188
4. The Gnomic, Didactic and Satiric Poems ... 194
'CHAPTER V — SUCCESSORS OF K&LID&SA IN PROSE AND
DRAMA
1. The Prose Kavyas of Dandin, Subandhu and Bana 200
^(a)-Dandin ... ... ... 207
(£) Subandhu ... ... ... 217
... ... ... 225
2. The Dramas from Sudraka to Bhavabhuti ... 239
-Aa) Sudraka ... ... ... 239
(b) The Authors of the Gaturbbani and the Matta-
vilasa ... ... ... 248
M<0 Harsa ... ... ... 255
(d) Vi^akhadatta , ... ... ... 262
(e\ Bhattanarayan^ ... ... ... 27 1
\jf) »• Bhavabhuti ... ... ... 277
(g) Yasovarman, Mayuraja and others ... 298
CHAPTER VI — THE LATER DECADENT POETRY AND PROSE
' 1. General Characteristics ... ... ... 304
2 . The Mahakavya ... ... ... 316
3. Poems with Historical Themes ... ... 345
4. Shorter Poems
(a) The Erotic Poetry ... ... ... 364
(b) The Devotional Poetry ... ... 375
CONTENTS iv(c)
PAGE
(c) The Didactic and Satiric Poetry ... 398
(d) The Anthologies and Women Poets ... 411
5. Prose Literature ... ... ••• 418
(a) The Popular Tale ... ... ... 420
(fc) The Prose Kavya ... ... ... 429
(c) The Campu ... ... ... 433
»
CHAPTER VII — THE LATER DECADENT DRAMA
1. General Characteristics ... ... 441
2. Murari and Rajasekhara ... ... 449
3. Dramas with Legendary Themus and Comedies of
Court-life ... ... ... 462
4. Dramas of Middle-class Life and Plays of Semi-
Historical Interest ... ... ... 474
5. The Allegorical Drama ... ... ... 479
6. Erotic and Farcical Plays ... ... 487
7 . Dramas of an Irregular Type ... ... 501
BOOK III
HISTORY OF ALAMKARA
CHAPTER I — LITERARY AND CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONS
Vyakarana school and Alamkara school ... ... 513
Alamkara-dastra — its name ... ... ... 517
Early Origin of the Alamkara ... ... 520
Earlier Writers on Alamkara -^astra ... ... 525
Udbhata ... ... ... ... 533
Alamkara in the Agnipurana ... ... ... 538
Auandavardhana, Dhvanikara and Abhinavagupta ... 5 JO
Rajasekhara ... ... ... ... 546
Bhattatauta ... ... ... ... 548
Kuntaka ... ... ... ... 548
Dhanafljaya :„ ... ... ... 550
iv(d) CONTENTS
PAGE
Mahimabhat^a ... ... ... ... 551
Bbojadeva ... ... ... ... 552
Ksemendra ... ... ... ... 554
Mammata ... ... ... ... 556
Buyyaka ... ... ... ... 55(>
Vagbhatal ... ... ... ... 559
Hemacandra ... ... ... ... 559
Jayadeva ... ... ... ... 560
Bhanudatta ... ... ... ... 561
Vidyadhara ... ... ... ... 561
Vidyanatha ... ... ... ... 562
Vagbhata II ... ... ... ... 563
Vigvanatha ... ... ... ... 563
Ke6avami6ra ... ... ... ... 564
Appaya Diksita ... ... ... ... 564
Jagannatha ... ... ... ... 565
Later minor writers ... ... ... 566
CHAPTER II — PRINCIPLES OF LITERARY TASTE AND
CRITICISM
Introductory ... ... ... ... 567
Vakrokti ... ... ... ... 536
Theory of Rasa ... ... ... ... 592
Dhvani ... ... ... ... 004
BOOK IV
EDITOR'S NOTES
Some Earlier Writers ... ... ... 610
Bhattikavya and other cognate Caritakavyas ... 614
Sanskrit Drama ... ... ... ... 630
Theory of the Greek Origin of the Indian Drama ... 650
Sakas arid the Sanskrit Drama ... ... 654
Buddhistic Dramas ..." ... ... 654
Lyric Poetry ... ... '... ... 656
CONTENTS iv(e)
PAGE
Amaru^ataka ... ... ... ... 668
Bhartrhari ... ... ... ... 669
Gnomic Poetry ... ... ... ... 673
Historical Kavyas ... ... ... r>76
Prakrt ... ... ... ... 683
Celebrated Writers of the Past — Little Known now ... 685
Gunadhya ... ... ... ... 687
Pancatantra ... ... ... ... 696
Bhasa and the Dramas assigned to him ... ... 708
Kalidasa ... ... ... ... 728
Subandhu ... ... ... ... 754
Bana ... ... ... ... 755
Sudraka ... ... ... ... 756
Harsa — the Dramatist ... ... ... 756
ViSakhadatta ... ... ... ... 760
Murari ... ... ... ... 760
CaturbhanI ... ... ... ... 761
Bhattanarayana ... ... ... ... 76*2
Bhavabhuti ... ... ... ... 763
Kumaradasa ... ... ... ... 763
Nilakantha Diksita ... ... ... 764
Mahendravikrama-vannan ... "... ... 765
Venkatanatha ... ... ... ... 765
Udayasundarl-kAtha ... ... 766
Udayavarma-carita ... ... 766
Kumarapala-pratibodha ... ... ... 767
Kupaka-satka ... ... ... ... 768
Partha-parakrama ... ... ... 769
Nara-narayanananda ... ... ... 770
Srinivasa-vilasa-campu ... ... ... 770
Nalabhyudaya ... ... ... ... 771
Katha-kautuka ... ... ... ... 771
Eastraudha-vam^a ... ... ... 772
Kamalim-kalahamsa ... ... ... 772
B— 1343B
iv(f) CONTENTS
PAGE
Acyutarayabhyudaya ... ... ... 772
Anandakanda-catnpu ... ... ... 773
Narayamya ... ... ... ... 774
Bharata-carita, Gandraprabha-carita, Kavya-ratna
and Bala-martanda-vijaya ... ... ... 775
BOOK Y
INDEX ... ... ... ... 777
PREFACE
The first information regarding the existence of Sanskrit
and the literature of the Upanisads was carried to the West by
the Latin translation, by Anquebil Duperron, of the 50 Upanisads
from the Persian translation of Dara Shiko which at once
elicited the highest approbation of Schopenhauer. There was
a time when it was openly doubted in Europe whether there was
any genuine Sanskrit language and the distinguished English
philosopher Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) in one of his papers
described Sanskrit as a forgery of the .Brahmins. But the
indefatigable work of Sir Wjlliam Jones, Colebrooke and others
made Sanskrit known to the Western world. It was then recog-
nised that the Sanskrit language with its old and modern
descendants represents the easternmost branch of the Indo-
Germanic Aryan stock of speech. Numerous special coincidences
of language and mythology between the Vedic Aryans and the
people of Iran also prove incontestably that these two members
of the Indo-Germanic family must have lived in close connection
for some considerable period after the others had separated from
them.
The origin of comparative philology dates from the time
when European scholars became accurately acquainted with
the ancient languages of India. Before this the classical scholars
had been unable to determine the true relations between the then
known languages of the Aryan stock. It is now almost univer-
sally recognised that Sanskrit is the eldest daughter of the old
mother-tongue of the Aryan people and probably the only
surviving daughter. But none of the other six principal
members of the family has left any literary monuments and
their original features have to be reproduced as best as possible
from the materials supplied by their own daughter-languages.
VI PREFACE
Such is the case with regard to the Iranic, Hellenic, Italic,
Celtic, Teutonic and Letto-Slavic languages. The oldest of the
Indian speeches is to be found in the Rgveda. In the language
of the Rgveda, one can trace a gradual and steady development
of the language of the classical Sanskrit through the later
Saipbitas, the Brahmanas and the Upanisads. The development^
however, is not as spontaneous as the modifications that are
effected by popular speech. It has been controlled by tradition and
grammatical studies. Changes in the speech of the upper classes
are largely prevented by the sacred devotion to it and this was
further supplemented by the work of the early grammarians,
whose analytical skill far surpassed anything achieved in the
West up till recent times. The Sanskrit grammarians tried
as far as possible to remove irregularities and they hardly allowed
any scope to new formations and this preserved to a very great
extent the purity of the language and its well-ordered nature
which would otherwise have been impossible. The conservative
tendency of Indian literary culture, which we have tried to
demonstrate in the field of the development of Sanskrit litera-
ture in the Introduction, is remarkably manifested also in the
permanent form that has been given to the Sanskrit language.
The word samskrta means purified and well-ordered. By 150
B.C., by the joint works of the 3 grammarians, Panini,
Katyayana and Patanjali, the language attained a stereotyped
form which remained the same throughout the centuries, though
it remained the literary language of the people. It can hardly
be doubted that though Panini recognised fully the Vedic accents
and forms, yet in his time it was Sanskrit and not the older
Vedic languages that were spoken. Yet Sanskrit cannot be
regarded as an artificial creation of the grammarians, for its
development from the Vedas through the Brahmanas and the
Upanisads can be clearly traced. The Sanskrit language, which
Panini calls bhasa, or speech, is closely akin to the language of
the Upanisads and the Brahmanas. Though this bhasa Sanskrit
is not so luxurious in form as the Vedic Sanskrit, yet there is
PREFACE Vll
no artificial symmetry and there is a profusion of nipatas or
irregular forms which makes the study of Sanskrit so bewilder-
ingly difficult to students.
Sanskrit was indeed the language not only of Mvya or
literature but of all the Indian sciences, and excepting the Pali
of the Hmayana Buddhists and the Prakrt of the Jains, it was
the only language in which the whole of India expressed all her
best thoughts for the last 2 or 3 thousand years, and it has united
the culture of India and given it a synchronous form in spite of
general differences of popular speech, racial and geographical,
economical and other differences. It is the one ground that has
made it possible to develop the idea of Hindu nationhood in
which kinship of culture plays the most important part. Under
the shadow of one Vedic religion there had indeed developed
many subsidiary religions, Saiva, Vaisaava, Sakta, etc., and
within each of these, there had been many sects and sub-sects
which have often emphasised the domestic quarrel, but in spite
of it all there is a unity of religions among the Hindus, for the
mother of all religious and secular culture had been Sanskrit.
Variations from Sanskrit as determined by Panini, Katya-
yana and Patanjali may occasionally be noticed in the Ramayana,
the Mahdbharata and some of the other Puranas and Patanjal
also noticed it when he said chandovat kavayah kurvanti and
an early poet such as Kalidasa also sometimes indulges in such
poetical licenses. Lesser poets who wrote inscriptions also often
showed their inability to conform to the grammatical rules of
Panini. But apart from this the Sanskrit language has not
suffered any change in the course of ages. It must, however, be
noted that the technical and non-Brahminical works sometimes
reveal a laxity of Sanskrit speech and in the case of the early
Buddhist writers there was an intentional disregard to the rules
of Panini, probably in their effort towards the simplification of
the Sanskrit language. The most notable example of this is the
gatha language of the Lalitamstara and similar other works.
Sometimes even later Brahminical works which tried to bring a
Vlii PREFACE
halo of antiquity, often made lapses in order to force upon the
people the imeprssion of their archaic nature as may be found in
many of the Tanfcra works, or in the works of divination and
incantation as found in the Bower manuscripts where there is
ample evidence of Prakrtism and careless Sanskrit. Instances,
however, are not rare where actual Prakrt forms were Sanskrit-
ised. The incorporation of Dravidian and other words into
Sanskrit has also been widely recognised. The words formed by
the unadi suffix will supply innumerable instances of how current
*>>
words gained a footing into the Sanskrit language and fanciful
derivations were attempted to justify such uses. '
Not only in fairly early times was Prakrt used for the edicts
and the prasastis but it was also used in writing poetical and
prose kdvyas in later times. The word Prakrta is seldom used
in early Sanskrit in the sense of a language. Its real meaning
is ' original/ ' natural/ ' normal/ and it has been used in this
sense in the Vedic literature in the Prdtitdkhyas and the
Srautasutras and also in Patafijali's Mahabhasya. The word
prdkrtamdnusa is used in the sense of ' an ordinary man ' or
1 a man in the street.' Hernacandra says that Prakrta is so
called because it has been derived from Sanskrit which i?
the prakrti or source (prakrtih samskrtam tatra bhavam tata
dgatanca prdkrtam). But there is another view as held by
Pischel where the Prakrt is derived as ' coming from nature
without any special instruction, i.e., the folk language. But it
is impossible for us to decide in what way the Prakrt language
grew. In the writings of the Prakrt grammarians and writers
on Poetics, the term denotes a number of distinctly artificial
dialects, which, as they stand now, could hardly have been
spoken vernaculars. Sir George Grierson divides Prakrt into
3 stages, first, the primary Prakrt, from which the Vedic language
and Sanskrit were derived; second, secondary Prakrt, consisting
of Pali, the Prakfts of the grammarians and literature and the
Apabhram^as ; the third Prakrt consists of the modern verna-
culars. But the inscriptions of A3oka show at least the existence
PREPACK IX
of three dialects, the Eastern dialect of the capital which
was the official lingua franca of the Empire, the North-western
and the Western dialects. We next find the post-A3okan
Prakrts in the inscriptions and the Prakrt of A^vaghosa of the
1st century A.D. Here we find the old Ardha-magadhi, the old
Sauraseni and the old MagadhL According to the current
tradition the Jaina doctrines preached by Mahavira were
delivered in Ardha-mlgadhi but the scriptures of the Svetambara
Jainas chat are now available have been very much influenced
by the Maharastri and the later texts were written in Jaina
Maharastri, while the Digambara scriptures are in Sauraseni.
The Pai^acI is also a form of Prakrt though only few books
written in this dialect are now available. PaisacI was probably
the language current in the Vindhya regiofi. The characteristics
of the old Prakrts consist largely in the transformation of the
vowels r and I, ai and au, and in the reduction of the sibilants and
nasals with also other changes in consonants. Literature of a
secular character might have been composed in old Praskrts until
the 2nd century A.D. But about that date new changes were
effected leading to the transformation of the old Prakrt to a new
stage of development. This resulted in the formation of the
Maharastri in the dominions of the Satavahanua in the South-
west and the rise of the Magadh! and the Sauraseni, as may be
noticed in the dramas of Bhasa and Asvaghosa on the one hand
and Kalidasa on the other. By the '2nd century A. Q. we find
the Maharastri lyric in the poems of Hala. The Maharastri
Prakrt became important as the Prakrt of the dramas and of the
epic poetry. The SaurasenT was but occasionally used in verse
and sometimes in the dram.i. The SaurasenI is more closely
allied to Sanskrit thin the Maharastri and it was generally used
in dramas by men of good and noble position. The MagadhI
on the other hand was reserved for people of low rank. The
Natya-$astra speaks, however, of different types of Prakrt such as
Daksinatya, Prdcya, Xvantl and Dhakkl, which are the different
type* of the SaurasenI, though Candatt and Sakarl are types of
X PREFACE
the Magadhi. The Prakrt of the verses of the Natya-tastra need
not be assumed to be the Prakrt of a different fype but it may
well be regarded as a variant of the Sauraseni. The poetry of
&aurasenl Prakrt is closely akin to the Maharastrl. A separate
note has been added regarding the Apabhramsa, the importance
of which for literary purposes may now be ignored.
A few Histories of Sanskrit Literature, such as History
of Sanskrit Literature (1860) by Maxmiiller, History of Indian
Literature (1878) by Weber, Indiens Litteratur und Kultur (1887)
by L. V. Schroeder, Literary History of India by Frazer,
History of Sanskrit Literature (1900) by Macdonell, Die Litteratur
des alien Indiens (1903) by Oldenberg, Les Litteratures de
VInde (1904) by V. Henry, G-eschichte der Indischen Litteratur
by Winternitz, Sanskrit Drama (1924), History of
Sanskrit Literature (1928), as well as Classical Sanskrit
Literature by Keith, and Geschichte der Sanskrit-philologie und
Indischen Altertumskunde (1917, Vol. I and L920, Vol. II)
by Windisch, have been written. Of these, Winternitz's work
in three volumes seems to be the most comprehensive treatment.
The Calcutta University had completed the English translation
of the first two volumes under the supervision of Professor
Winternitz himself. The English translation of Volume IIT
had advanced a little when Professor Winternitz died. The
Calcutta University had then entered into correspondence with
some European scholars about the supervision of the translation
of Volume III. This correspondence having failed, I was
approached by the University to undertake the work and
it was proposed by me that as the translation of Volume III had
only advanced but little, it would be better to plan another work
dealing with the subjects that form the content of Volume III
of Professor Winternitz's work. It was also felt necessary that
the title of the book, as it appeared in Professor Winternitz's
work, History of Indian Literature, should be changed to History
of Sanskrit Literature , as " Indian Literature " is too vast a
subject to be taken up as a sort of appendage to the history of
PREFACE XI
Sanskrit literature, as Prof. Winternitz had done. As my
hands at the time were too full with other works, it was arranged
that under my chief editorship within an Editorial Board the
work should be done by subscription by the scholars of Bengal.
Volume I deals with Kavya and Alamkara and Volume II is
expected to deal with other Technical Sciences. In Volume If
I had the good fortune to get the co-operation of Prof. Dr. S. K.
Da in writing out the portion on Kavya. But for his valuable
scholarly assistance and promptness of execution the publication
of Volume 1 might have been long delayed. I have tried to
supplement Prof. De's treatment with an Introduction and
additional Editorial Notes and it is expected that these may also
prove helpful to students. Our indebtedness to Prof. Wjnternitz's
German Edition, Vol. Ill, and Prof. Keith's works, as well as to
other Western and Indian scholars, cannot be exaggerated. For
want of space it was not possible to go into greater details
regarding the Alamkara-Sastra, but I hope that what appears
there may be deemed sufficient for a general history of Sanskrit
literature. The Introduction is intended to give a proper
perspective for reviewing the history of Sanskrit literature in its
background of racial, social and historical environment, an
appreciation of which I consider essential for grasping the
significance of the Sanskrit literary culture.
It is to be regretted that some of the contributions, such as
those on the Historical Kavyas, or the elements of literature in
the Inscriptions, or the Prakrt literature, could not be incorporat-
ed in the present volumel though these should have been included
here. This was due to the fact that those contributions were
not received in time. It is expected, however, that these will
appear in Volume II. la the meanwhile, both in the body of
the book and in the Editorial Notes some general estimates have
been taken of these, though very little has been said about the
elements of literature in Inscriptions.
By way of confession of a hasty observation in the Alamkara
section that the Latin word aurum may be connected with the
B(l)— 1343B
word alam in Sanskrit I beg to point out that since that section
has been printed, an eminent philologist has assured me that
neither aurum is Latin nor can it be philologically connected with
alam in Sanskrit.
In conclusion, I like to express my thanks to Mr. Krishna-
gopal Goswami, Sastri, M.A.," P.R.S., Smriti-Mimansa-Tirtha,
Lecturer in the Post-Graduate Department of Sanskrit of the
University of Calcutta, who has kindly prepared a list of contents
aad a detailed Index for this volume.
S. N. DASGUPTA.
NOTE
Since on account of circumstances over which there was no
control the publication has been unusually delayed for nearly six
years, I owe an apology for my inability in bringing the work
up to date.
University of Dacca, ) __
1948. 5 S. K. DE.
INTRODUCTION
Winternitz, in Vol. Ill of bis History of
Indian Literature , German Edition, speaks of "the
Sutas as the representatives of the old heroic poetry
who lived in the court of the princes and sang to extol
them. They also went forth to battle so as to be
able to sing of the heroic deeds of the warriors from
their own observation. These court bards stood
closer to the warriors than to the learned Brahmins.
They also acted as charioteers of the warriors
in their campaigns and took part in their martial
life/'
But Winternitz does not give any reference
from which he draws his views about the suta as the
traditional keeper of heroic poetry. The siiia occurs
along with the rathakara and karmara in the AtJiarva
Veda III, 5, 6, 7. We find reference to this suta in
Gautama (IV. 15), Baudhayana (10, I. 9. 9.), VaSistha
(XVIII. 6), Mann (X. II), Visnu Dh. S. (XVI. 6),
Yaj. (I. 3.), and the Suta-samhita, where he appears as
a pratiloma caste born of a Ksattriya male and a
Brahmin female. Kautilya says in his Arthasastra
(III. 7) that Romaharsana, called also Suta in
the Puranas, was not born out of a pratiloma
marriage. The suta has been referred to as sacred in
the Visnupurana and the Agnipurana. The duty of
the sutas according to Manu (X. 47) was to drive
chariots and according to the Vaikhanasa-smarta-sutra
(X. 13) it was a part of his livelihood to remind the
king of his duties and cook food for him. According to
Karnaparva (XXXII, 46. 47), Sutas were the servants
Function
of the sat as
accord ing to
Winternitz.
Sutas were
not repOBi-
t o r i e a of
heroic
poetry.
XIV INTRODUCTION
(paricdrakas) of the Ksattriyas. According to Vayu-
purdna (Ch. I.), the Sutas used to preserve the
pedigrees of kings and great men and also the traditions
of learning and books. But nowhere do we find
that Sutas had any other work than those said
above or that they ever played the part of a bard
reciting the glories of the kings or were in any
sense the depository of heroic poetry. His chief duty
was the taming of elephants* driving chariots and
riding horses. The difference between suta and ratha-
kdra is that the former was born from Ksattriya male
and Brahmin female in wedlock, the other out of
wedlock through clandestine union.
Artificiality rjijie theory that these bards were gradually
not an in- ^ ° *
dispensable superseded by erudite poets also demands confirmation.
character \ J L
of Sanskrit It is also doubtful to affirm that the poets always
described fights and battles from hearsay. Judging
from the Mahabharata and the state of events given in
it in terms of tithis and naksatras which synchronise
throughout the whole book, one should think that there
were either dated notes of events or that the poets
themselves according to some definite traditions syn-
chronised the dates. Again, we know so little of the
earlier poetry that we have no right to say that in
earlier poetry greater stress was laid to form and erudi-
tion. The artificial poetry began at a much later date,
from the 6th or the 7th century. Neither in the
Rdmdyana nor in the Mahabharata do we find any
influence of artificiality. Whatever may have been said
in the Tantrdkhydyikd (1.321), the Mahabharata is
regarded as an itihasa, and seldom regarded as a kdvya
which place is assigned to the Rdmdyana. It is also
doubtful (at least there is hardly any evidence) that th$
panegyrics were the first thing of kdvya. It is also
wrong to hold thatthe Kdvya style means an ornate style.
INTRODUCTION
XV
At least none of the rhetoricians hold this view and
there is hardly any evidence in its favour. Winternitz,
therefore, is entirely wrong when he says, " The more
strenuous the effort of the poet, the more ' ornate ' his
expressions, and the more difficult his work of art, the
more did the prince feel flattered by it." The earliest
Sanskrit rhetorician Bhamaha holds a different view
regarding kdvya. He says that even if kdvya requires P°etry
explanatory interpretation like a Sdstra, then it would
indeed be a matter of great regret for the common man.
This signifies that at least Bhamaha thought that kdvya
should be written in such a manner that it should be
intelligible to all. He says further that there are
indeed different types of style but it is only that type
of style which is intelligible to the ignorant, to women
and children, that is sweet. Thus, in II. 1-3, he
says : mddhuryam abhivdnchantah prasddam ca sume-
dhasah \ xamdsavanti bhuydmsi na paddni prayunjate II
kecidojo'bhidhitsantah samasyanti bahunyapi II travyam
ndtisamastdrtham kdvyam madhuramisyate \ cividva-
dahgandbdlapratitdrtham prasddavat II
It should be noted that this opinion of Bhamaha is
based upon the study of previous good poetry and the
opinions of other poets. Thus, he says in the colophon
of his work :
avalokya matdni satkavlndm avagamya svadhiyd ca
kdvyalaksma \
sujandvagamdya bhdmahena grathitam rakrilagomi-
sununedam \
This opinion may be confirmed by reference to
the -writings of other rhetoricians who followed
Bhamaha. It is a pity that Winternitz should have
such an unfounded and uncharitable opinion of Indian
poetry. It is also difficult to imagine why Winternitz
IdentificA-
t i o n of
K i v y a as
"ornate
p o el r y "
untenable.
XVI
INTRODUCTION
Bhatti's
view of
poetry.
Alamkara
earlier
erature.
should render kavya as ornate poetry, which he defines
as that in which "the poet makes it his highest ambi-
tion to astonish his readers or hearers by as numerous,
as original and as elaborate similes as possible/1 His
remarks about ornate poetry apply only to the poets of
a degenerate time, when the true ideals of real poetry
was lost sight of and when the poets had to pose
themselves as great pundits. It is no doubt true that
many of the famous poets like Bhatti, Magha or Sri-
harsa follow the worst standard of artificial poetry and
indeed Bhatti boasts that his kavya is such that it is
not intelligible without explanation ; yet it must be
pointed out that this was not the opinion of the critics
of literature and that for that reason kavya style should
not be confounded with artificiality. During the period
that many of these poets flourished there was such an
ascendancy of the scholarly philosophers, that the poets
often thought that learning was greater than poetry
and they tried to pose their learning through their
poetry. But I do not see how a poet like Asvaghosa
can be regarded as a representative of ornate poetry
in the same sense in which Mahaksattrapa Rudra-
daman's inscription-texts can be regarded as ornate.
Prof. Winternitz contended that to know of the
origin of ornate poetry we must know the origin of the
Alamkara literature and he seems to imply that that type
of literature may be called ornate in which an acquaint-
ance with the Alamkara literature or its principles may
be presupposed. He held further that surely Valmlki
did not as yet know any manual of poetics. But what
is the reason for such an assurance ? We know that
upamas were well-known even in Vedic times and
Yaska deals with upama in a fairly systematic manner.
Panini also seems to be fairly acquainted with some of
the fundamental types of upama. We have also reasons
INTRODUCTION
kvii
to believe that the alamkara type of thought had its
origin in the Vyakarana school. We do not also know
that there were no treatises of alamkara written before
Viilmlki.
The comments that have been made above will show
that the theory of ornate poetry (kunstdichtung) is beset
with many difficulties. Though it is needless to trace
the origin of Sanskrit Kavyas to the Vedas or the
Brahmanas, it cannot be decided that some of the early
Upanisads like the Katha, Mundaka and the fivetdtva-
tara contain verses in the classical style. Indeed the
style of the Mahabharata and the Gita may be regarded
as the prolongation of the classical style which had
begun already at the time of the Upanisads. Among
the early literature the Kamayana and the Mahabharata
(though the latter is called itihasa) must be regarded as
the earliest literature of the Kavya form that is available
to us. Rhetoricians in a much later time have quoted
verses from the Mahabharata to demonstrate the theory
of pyanjana and (junibhtita-ryanjana.1 Though there
is a difference of atmosphere in the Mahabharata
which lays greater stress on the practical problems
of life and conflict of ideals, yet the atmosphere of
Rdmdyana is not far removed from that of Kalidasa.
As Dr. De has shown, we can hardly trace the origin
of Sanskrit Kavyas to Prakrt sources. It has also
been pointed out by Dr. De that the theory of
Renaissance of Sanskrit Kavya in the 5th or 6th
century A.D., as proposed by Maxmiiller, cannot
properly be supported. It is true that no extant
Birect evo-
lution of
the classical
style from
the Vcdic
literature.
The theory
of the Re-
naissance
of Sioskrit
literature
untenable.
1 See Mahabharata, Striparva, Chap. XXIV, verse 17.—'* ay am sa rasanot-
karsl, etc." Also, Santtparva Apad lharma, Chap. 153, verses 11 and 1'2.
These have bien referred to in tlie Kdvyapraktita, Chip. V, verses 45 and 46,
as examples of gnnibhuta vyahgya, and Chap. IV, as example of prabandha
vyafljand.
C— 1843B
XVlll
INTRODUCTION
Continuity
of the Kavya
literature.
Continuity
of the Kavya
style.
kavyas of any importance are available before A6va-
ghosa. But there are plenty of references scattered
over which suggest the existence of 'a fairly good field
of Kfwya literature during the 5th to the 1st century
B.C. Even Panini is said to have written a work
called Jambavatlvijaya and Pataujali refers to a kdvya
by Vararuci.
Patanjali also refers to three akhyayikas, Vasava-
datta, Sumanottara, and Bhaimarathl, and two dramas
called Kamsabadha and Balibandha. He also quotes a
number of verses from which the continuity is apparent.
Lalitavistara also mentions Mvya-Mrana as a subject
which was studied by Buddha. These and various other
reasons adduced in the text show fairly conclusively the
existence of Kavya literature from the 2nd century B.C.
to the 2nd century A.D. It has already been noticed
that many of the verses of the Upanisads may well
have been included in a classical work of Mvya in later
times. But most of the literature has now been lost.
A£vaghosa's Kavya as well as Kudradamana's
inscriptions show an acquaintance with the principles
of alamkara. The Prakrt inscriptions of the first two
centuries of the Christian era as well as many texts of
the Buddhists or the verses later found in the Pali
Jatakas all reveal the fact that they were written on
the model of Sanskrit writings of their time. The
writings of Matrceta, Kumaralata, Arya-6ura, so far as
they have been recovered, and the verses that are found
in the Camka-samhita also confirm the view that the
Kavya style was flourishing at the time and this could
not have been the case if there were no poetical
texts at the time. There is also reason to believe that
erotics, dramaturgy, the art of dancing and singing
were all keeping pace with the literary development of
the time.
INTRODUCTION
XIX
But definite dates of the poets in the history of Indian
literature are difficult to be got. The Aihole inscription
of 634 A.I), mentions the names of Kalidasa and
Bbaravi and we know that Bana flourished in the
7th century A.D. They are the two fixed landmarks
in the early chronology of Sanskrit poets. The
testimony of Bana as well as the other references
that we find of the existence of many poets at the
time prove fairly conclusively that the 4th and 5th
centuries may be regarded as a very prominent period
of literary production. This gets further confirmation
from the evidence of inscriptions which are written in
a fine literary style. Already from the evidence of
Bhamaha we know that many writers on alamkara had
flourished before him and that he had drawn on them
in the composition of his work. The panegyric of
Samudragupta by Harisena (about 350 A.D.) may be
taken as a typical case.
But from the Oth century onwards we find that the
poets often manifest a tendency for display of learning
and scholarship and skill in the manipulation of Mords
and verbosity and a studied use of alamkaras. We know
that in the 4th century Yasubandhu had written his
Abhidharmakosa. in this great work he mercilessly
criticised not only other schools of Buddhism but also
the Hindu schools of philosophy, such as Samkhya,
Vaisesika and the like. Dinnaga and Vatsyayana
flourished about the 5th century A.D. and from this
time onward the quarrel of the philosophers and learned
scholars of divergent schools began to grow into such
importance that it practically influenced every other
department of thought. The old simplicity of style
which we find in Patanjali and Savara had now
disappeared. Saiikara and Jayanta who flourished
probably in the 7th and 9lh century are indeed noble
Literature
in the first
six hundred
years of the
Christian
era.
Greater
complexity
of style in
later times
from sim.
plicity to
pedantry.
XX INTRODUCTION
exceptions, but even then the difference between their
style and that of Patanjali and Savara, is indeed very
great. Learning appealed to people more than poetic
freshness. We can well imagine that when most of
the great poets flourished in the court-atmosphere
where great scholars came and showed their skill in
debate and wrangle, learning and scholarship was
more appreciated than pure fancy of poetry. Rabindra-
nath draws a fine picture of such a situation in which
he depicts the misfortune of the poet Sekhara.
Learning ^r- De has in a very impressive manner described
the court atmosphere and how it left its mark on
Sanskrit poetry. As a result of the particular demand
in the court atmosphere the natural spontaneity of the
poet was at a discount. The learning and adaptation
to circumstances was given more importance than the
pure flow of genius. Thus, Mammata, the celebrated
rhetorician in discussing the nature of poetic powers
say? that poetic power is the skill that is derived by
a study of human behaviour, learning, familiarity with
literature, history and the like, training taken from one
who understands literature and exercise.1 There was
the other important thing for a court poet that he
should be a vidagdha or possess the court culture, and
Dandin also says that even if the natural powers be
slender, one may make himself suitable for the company
of the vidagdha through constant practice. This shows
that learning and exercise were given a greater place of
importance than the natural spontaneity of poetic
genius. As a result of this Sanskrit poetry not only
became artificial but followed a traditional scheme of
description and an adaptation of things. The magic
of the Sanskrit language, the sonorousness of its word-
loka&strakSvjSdyavekgaQit I
Hi hetusladudbhave II
INTRODUCTION
XXI
jingle also led the poets astray and led them to find their
amusement in verbal sonorousness. But whatever may
be said against long compounds and punsjt^cannot also
be denied that the Sanskrit language has the special
genius of showing its grandeur and majesty through
a noble gait. An Arab horse may be more swift
and effective for all practical purposes but a well-adorned
elephant of a high size has a grace in its movement
which cannot be rivalled by a horse. These long
compounds even in prose give such a natural swing
when supplemented with the puns and produce an exhil-
aration which, though may not be exactly of the poetic
type, has yet its place in the aesthetic atmosphere
which is well illustrated in the writings of Bana and
in many inscriptions.
The sloka form in which the Sanskrit Kavyas are
generally written renders the whole representation into
little fragmentary pictures — which stand independently
by themselves and this often prevents the development
of a joint effect as a unitary whole. The story or the
plot becomes of a secondary interest and thejuain atten-
tion of the reader is drawn to the poetical effusions of
the writer as expressed in little pictures. It is curious
also to notice that excepting a few poets of the type of
Bhavabhiiti, the rugged, the noble and the forceful
elements of our sentiments or of the natural objects
could hardly be dealt with success. Even Kalidasa
failed in his description of sublime and sombre scenes.
His description of the lamentation of Eati at the death
of Madana in the Kuniarasambhava has no tragic effect
on us and it seems to be merely the amorous sentiment
twisted upside down.
In studying the literature of a country, we cannot
very well take out of our consideration a general cultural
history of its people. The Aryans after their migration
Some cba-
racterisiics
of Sanskrit,
poetry.
ReJigio-
social res-
trictions on
society.
XX11 INTRODUCTION
to India bad come to live in a country peopled by
aliens having a culture far below their own (excepting
probably the Dravidians) whose cultural and other
tastes were entirely different. The great problem
before them was the problem of the fusion of
races. It was the main concern of the leaders of
society to protect the purity of the race, its culture and
religion as far as possible. They initiated the system
of varnasrama and enunciated rigorous regulations for
the respective duties of the four varnas. There is
ample evidence in the Smrtis that inspite of the
rigorous regulations, these were often violated and as
time passed on, rigours increased. Thus marriage with
girls of lower varnas which was allowed at one stage
was entirely stopped in later times. There is, however,
evidence to show that marriages took place not only
with the girls of lower varnas but many kings had
devoted Greek wives. But still the problem of fusion
of races gradually increased when the Huns, the
Scythians and the Greeks not only entered the country
and lived there but became Hinduised. So long as
many rulers of the country were given to military
adventures and the people as a whole entered into
commercial negotiations and intercourses with different
countries and established settlements in different lands
— the balance or the equilibrium of society had a
dynamic vigour in it. Intercourse with other people
stagnating on equal terms expanded the mental vista, but when,
effect of the ^ f .
rigorous for reasons unknown, there came a period of stagnation
of smrti. and people became more or less narrow and provincial,
they lacked vigour and energy of free thought. In
society the rigour of social rules increased, and people
followed these rules inspite of the fact that obedience to
such rules was in direct contradiction to the professed
systems of philosophy. Philosophy became divested of
INTRODUCTION xxiii
social life and whatever divergence there might have
been in the philosophical speculations of different sects
and communities — they became equally loyal to the
same smrti laws. vWhen the smdrta followed the
injunctions of smrti on the belief that they all ema-
nated from the Vedas, the Vaisriava followed the
same smrti rules on the ground that they were the
command meats of God. The maxim of the Mlmdmsd
was that no smrti laws would have any validity if
they are not supported by the Vedas. But there were
really many smrti laws about which no evidence could
be found in the Vedas. The legal fiction was invented
that where corroborative Vedic texts were not available,
one should suppose that they existed but were lost. The
whole effort was suicidal. It denied in principle the
normal human fact that society is a human institution.
With the change of condition and circumstances,
material wants and means of production and external
influences of diverse kinds, man must change and with
the change of man, the social institutions, duties and
obligations must also change. The attempt to bind
with iron chains all movements of society, so that these
must adapt themselves to the conditions that prevailed
in Vedic times, was like the attempt of the Chinese to
make the feet of the ladies manacled in iron shoes, so
that when the lady grew to the adult age, her feet
should remain like those of a baby. This extreme
conservatism of social laws had an extremely depressive
effect as regards the freedom of mind and it enslaved
the temper of the mind and habituated it to respect the
older traditions at the expense of common sense and
wisdom. The elasticity of mind that we find in the
Mahdbharata soon disappeared and people got themselves
accustomed to think in terms invented for them by their
predecessors. Yet it is not true that they were always
INTRODUCTION
faithful and loyal to the customs of Vedic times* Any
Brahmin or community of Brahmins of influence could
make a smrti law which proved binding to successive
generations of people. This may be illustrated by the
case of beef-eating. Beef-eating is a recognised Vedic
custom and even to-day when marriage ceremonies are
performed, there is a particular mantra which signifies
that a cow has been brought for the feast of the bride-
groom and the bride-groom replies out of pity that the
cow need not be butchered for his gratification. But
yet according to the later smrti, cow-killing or beef-
eating is regarded as one of the major crimes. Again,
while sea-voyage was allowed in ancient times and
therefore had the sanction of the Vedic literature, it ha.*
..been prohibited by the later smrti. The list of kali-
varjyas may all be taken as instances of drawing up a
tighter noose at the neck of the society. Thus, there was
not merely the convenient fiction on behalf of the .smrti
but even injunctions that were distinctly opposed to the
older Vedic practices, which were forced upon the people
by the later codifiers of smrti for the guidance of society.
It is difficult to understand how the injunctions of the
smrti writers derived any authoritative value. Probably
in some cases many older instances had gone out of
practice or become repugnant to the people, or that the
codification of some smrti writers might have had the
backing-of a ruling prince and was for the matter of that
held sacred in his kingdom. But it may also have been
that some smrti writers had risen to great eminence
and authority and by virtue of the peoples' confidence
in him, his decisions became authoritative. In the case
of Raghunandana, who lived in Navadwipa about 500
years ago, we find that either by personal influence or by
propaganda he succeeded in making his views and inter-
pretation stand supreme in Bengal in preference to the
INTRODUCTION xxv
Views of older smrti authorities like Yajnavalkya or
Vijftane^vara.
Dharma£astras were probably in existence before
Yaska, but the important Dharmatastras of Gautama, the
' _r * sattra and
Baudhayana and Apastamba probably flourished bet-
ween 600 and 300 B.C. Before the Dharmagastras or
the Dharmasutras we have the Grhyasutras. The
Hiranyake£i Dharmasulras were probably written some-
times about the 4th century A.D. The Va&stha
Dharmasutra was probably in existence in the 1st or the
2nd century of the Christian era. The Visnu Dharma-
sutra had probably an earlier beginning, but was
thoroughly recast in the 8th or the 9th century A.D. The
Harita was probably written somewhere about the 5th
century A.D. The versified tiahkha is probably a
work of later date though it may have had an earlier
version. We have then the smrtis of Atri, U6anas,
Kanva, Kagyapa, Gargya, Cyavana, Jatukarna, Pai-
thlnasi, Brhaspati, Bharadvaja, Satatapa, Sumanta, of
which the dates are uncertain. But most of the
smrtis other than the older ones were written* during
the period 400 to 1000 A.D. In ancient times the
number of smrtis must have been very small and the
extent of limitations imposed by them were also not so
great. Thus, Baudhayana speaks only of Aupajangham,
Katya, Kagyapa, Gautama, Prajapati, Maudgalya,
Harita. Vasistha mentions only Gautama, Prajapati,
Manu, Yama and Harita. Apastamba mentions ten.
Manu speaks of only six besides himself, such as, Atri.
Bbrgu, Vasistha, Vaikhanasa and Saunaka. But in all
their works the writers are mentioned only casually and
there is no regular enumeration of writers on Dharma in
one place. Yajnavalkya is probably the earliest writer
who enumerated twenty expounders of Dharma. Kuma-
rila who flourished in the 7th and the 8th century speaks
D— 1843B
XXVI INTRODUCTION
of 18 Dharma Samhitas. We have then the 24 Dharmd
Samhitas which in addition to Yajnavalkya's list
contains 6 more. There is another smrti called
Sattrimhnmata quoted by Mitdksara which contains
36 smrtis. The Vrddhagautama Smrti gives a list of 57
dharma-sastras and the Prayoga-parijata gives a list of
18 principal smrtis, 18 upasmrtis and 21 smrtikdras. The
Later Smrtis Nirnayasmdhu and the Mayu hh a of Nllakantha gives a
list of 100 smrtis. Thus as time advanced the number
of smrti authorities increased and there was gradually
more and more tightening. TheManusmrti had probably
attained its present form by the 2nd century A.D. and
the Ydjflavalkyasmrti was probably composed in the 3rd
oHth century A.D. We find that though the smrtis had
begun at an early date and were supposed to have been
based upon Vedic injunctions and customs, yet new
smrti authorities sprang up giving new injunctions
which can hardly be traced to Vedic authorities. Many
of the older authorities were again and again revised to
harmonise the changes made and these revised editions
passed off as the old ones as there was no critical
apparatus of research for distinguishing the new from
the old.
The Puranas also indulged in the accretions of the
many materials of the Dharma-tdstra. From the 10th
century onwards we have a host of commentators of
smrtis and writers of digests or nibandhas of smrtis. A
peep into the smrti£astras and nibandhas of later times
shows that there was a regular attempt to bind together
all possible actions of men of different castes of
society by rtgorous rules of smrtis. Such an attempt
naturally has its repercussions on the mental freedom
and spontaneity of the mind of the people.
This tendency may also be illustrated by a reference
to the development of the philosophical literature.
INTRODUCTION
XXVli
It is curious, however, to note that though the Indian
systems of philosophy diverged so diametrically from
one another, they all professed to be loyal inter-
preters of the Upanisads. Saiikara'sown interpretation
of the Upanisads consists chiefly in showing the purport
of the Upanisads as condensed in the sutras. The
Brahmasutra itself says that there is no end to logical
discussions and arguments and no finality can be
reached by logical and philosophical debates. It is
always possible to employ keener and keener weapons of
subtle logic to destroy the older views. The scope and
area of the application of logic must always be limited
by the textual testimony of the Upanisads, which alone
is the repository of wisdom. It is curious to note that
the same Upanisadic text has been interpreted by some
writers as rank nihilism, by others as absolutism and by
others again as implying dualism, pluralism or theism.
But the spirit was still there that the highest wisdom
and truth are only available in the Upanisadic thought.
So great has been the hold of the Upanisads on the
Indian mind that even after centuries of contact with
the Western world, its science and philosophy, Indian
mind has not been able to shake off the tight hold of
the Upanisads on its thought. The late poerTagore,
who happened to be probably the greatest poet and
thinker of our age, drew most of his inspiration and
ideas from the Upanisads. In all his writings he largely
expanded the Upanisadic thought assimilating with it
some of the important tendencies of Western biology
and philosophy, but always referring to* Upanisads or
interpreting them in that light for final corroboration.
The collapse of the Indian genius in formalistic lines
and in artificiality in social customs, behaviours and
actions, in philosophy and in art, is naturally reflected
in the development of the Sanskrit literature of a later
Loyalty to
the past, the
chief cha-
racteristic of
Indian
culture.
XXV111
INTRODUCTION
The tight-
ening grip
of the Smrtis
affected
freedom of
thought
and pat-
teroised
life.
Its effect
on literature.
age. In the earlier age also the reverence for the past
had always its influence on the genius of the poets of
succeeding ages. It may be presumed that the court
atmosphere of the Hindu kings was always dominated
by a regard for the Hindu Dharmatastras as it was also
the general attitude of the people. This tightening of
the grip on the mind to follow the past was so much
impressed upon the people that when after an age the
poetical practice was established, the rhetoricians
recorded this practice and made it a pattern for all kinds
of literature. Just as the various writers on Smrti had
tried to record the customary practice and behaviour of
all the daily actions of all class of people, so the rhetori-
cians also recorded the practice of the past poets and
this served as a pattern or guide for the poets of
succeeding generations.
When we read the works on rhetoric by Bhamaba,
Dandin, Vamana, Udbhata and Rudrata, and other
writers of earlier times, we find discussions on Kavya
of a structural nature. They discuss what constitutes
the essence of Kavya, the nature of adornments, the
relative importance^of the style, the adornment and the
like, or whether or not suggestivity or rousing of senti-
ments should be regarded as being of primary impor-
tance in good literature. But seldom do we find an
enumeration regarding requirements of the various
kinds of poetry, mahakavya, khanda-kavya, etc., or a
detailed description of the patterns of the different kinds
- of characters of heroes and heroines, or an enumeration
of the subjects that have or have not to be described in
works of poetry. These patterns, when enumerated by
the rhetoricians, become patterns of poetic behaviour
which must be followed by the poets and loyalty to
these patterns became often the criteria of good or bad
poetry, just as the patterns of conduct recorded in the
INTRODUCTION
XXIX
Smrti-tiastras became the criteria of good or bad conduct
of the people.
It must also be noted that as the number of injunc-
tions increased and as the Smrti-$astra demanded a
complete patternisation of the conduct of all sections of
people, freedom of life and behaviour gradually began
to disappear. In whatever community or clan of people
one may have had a chance of enquiring into, one
would find the same pattern of behaviour as was
running through the ages. It was an attempt towards a
mummification of social life from which all novelty was
gone. Even if there was anywhere any violation of
the pattern, the poet could hardly utilise it without
shocking the sense of decorum and religious taste of the
people. Thus, the poet had hardly any field of new
experience. The freer life of older limes became gradu-
ally encased within the iron casings of the laws of
smrti. Thus Kalidasa in describing his ideal king
Dillpa, says that his subjects did not deviate even by a
line from the course that was followed from the time of
Manu. It is thus easy to say that when life is un-
changeably patternised and there is no freedom and
spontaneity or change or variety in life, poetry cannot
reflect any new problems of life and necessarily it must
follow artificial patterns which had been current
through centuries. This was further enhanced by the
fact that the same tendency of working after a pattern
out of a reverence for the past also intellectually com-
pelled the poet to look for the pattern of his work to
earlier poets or to generalisations made from them as
recorded in the Alamkara literature. I* wish to affirm
here that the reason why the earlier Sanskrit literature
like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the works
of Sudraka, Bhasa, etc., are more human, and the reason
why poets of a later period became gradually more and
Patterni-
sation of
life explains
monotony
regarding
choice of
subjects.
XXX
INTRODUCTION
Kalidasa a
portraycrof
VanjaSrama
ideals.
more artificial, is largely due to the stagnation of society
and social life. Kalidasa, however, may be taken as an
exception, but it seems that in his time the ideal of old
varnaframa-dharma seemed still to inspiie the ideal of
the people. For this reason in two of his works,
Raghuvamsa and Abhijftana-talmntala he had taken
a theme of antiquity and of history. Thus in Raghu-
vamsa, which is a history of the kings of Kagbu race,
he seems to have invented many episodes of the kings
of the past about whom practically no record is avail-
able in Valmiki. It is curious to note, however, that
though he practically passed off the scenes of Rama's
life depicted by Valmiki, yet he expressed his gratitude
to him to the extent of comparing his work as being
merely of the type of passing a thread through pearls
through which holes have already been made by
Valmiki. Now, what may be the secret of Kalidasa's
feeling of gratefulness?
.Now it seems to me that Dillpa, Kaghu, Aja,
Dasaratha and Ramacandra are really the pivotal
characters of Raghuvamsa. If we take the lives of
them all and roll them up into one, we can very well have
a faithful picture of an ideal king, who is devoted to the
rules of varnasrama-dharma . Throughout the Ramayana,
in the character of Kama, beginning from the episode
of his marriage to the killing of Sambuka, we have the
picture of such a king, who is loyal to his father,
loyal to his people, who marries for progeny, shows
heroism by conquest and carries the fruits of civilisation
to other~countries. What Kalidasa meant by threading
the pearls is that he has really rolled up into one the
great ideas of Valmiki and manifested them in the
character of different kings beginning from Dillpa. His
success with these two Kavyas was largely due to his
natural genius and also because the thing he took up
INTRODUCTION
was hallowed with the glory of the past. In Sakuntala
he staged his theme in a fairly supernormal manner, love.
It was a prolongation of earth to heaven and as such
it was not normal or natural. We find here also the
same loyalty on the part of the king to varmframa-
dharma and the romance with Sakuntala was also not
clearly of the ordinary social order. Sakuntala was the
daughter on the one hand of Vigvamitra and on the
other, of Manuka, of an -ascetic Ksattriya and a heavenly
nymph. As such the love was not unsocial. In the
other drama Vikrarnorvasl also, he availed himself of a
Yedic story and described the love of the king with a
heavenly nymph. Had Kalidasa been a modern man,
he should have probably staged his drama in a
different manner. Believer as he was in some amount
of free love, the social conditions did not allow him to
depict it otherwise than with an Apsara. According to
the older smrtis and traditions available to us, we find
that a love affair with a courtesan's daughter was
thoroughly allowable in social practice. In the third
love affair described by Kalidasa, he takes a Yaksa and
his wife. In the fourth love affair in Malavikagnimitra,
which was his maiden work, he was not so daring and
took opportunity of the fact that it was the constant
practice of the kings to have more than one wife.
In that case also, Malavikfi was also a princess. She
was brought in the family by circumstances of an un-
natural character and though the queen had protected
her from the sight of the king, he accidentally saw her
portrait and gradually fell into love with her. The
parivrajika performed her part in the manner some-
what foreshadowed in the Kama£astra. The other love
affair that Kalidasa describes was that of Siva and
Parvati and here also only in the 5th canto, that we
find a grfeat ideal depicted in the effort of ParvatI to
Jcxxii
INTRODUCTION
Patterniaa-
tiou of life
by the
Smrtis
restricted
to the scope
of free love—
a natural
desideratum
for the deve-
lopment of
poetry.
attain, through penances, such proper worth as may
make her deserving of her great husband, and this is the
most important message of the book. Otherwise, the
Kavya, as a whole, falls flat on our ears. The 1st nnd the
2nd cantos are bores. The 3rd canto attains some vigour
and the 4th canto is a mere parody of the tragic conse-
quences following the effort of Kama to fascinate Siva.
The 6th and 7th cantos can well be read or omitted.
We thus see that the divine episode, even when deli-
neated by a master genius like Kalidasa, really failed
because it had not the realities of life. Its value with
us is the great idea that physical beauty by itself
cannot really win the heart of great souls and also the
idea that it is only then when a great soul is wedded
with a woman who by her moral austerities can make
herself pure and attract her husband through her
purity and spiritual greatness and the crucifixion of the
baser tendencies of life, that great leaders of nations
such as Karttikeya can be produced.
A member of the higher caste is to get married
the very day he ceases to be a Brahmacarl according to
the maxim that one cannot stay even a day without
belonging to an a£rama. Such marriages would naturally
be arranged for him by his parents and relations and
if after that he remains absolutely loyal to his wife,
there is hardly any room for any intrigue or romance.
Sanskrit poetry generally holds within it a charm
or attraction which is almost inimitable by any other
language, but owing to the patternised form of
life enjoined by the smrtis, the scope of life depicted
in the Kavyas became so narrow and limited. The
honest life formulated in the codes of duties, fixed
once and for all, cannot be the fit atmosphere for the
free development of poetic art. Freedom of love to
some extent has to be tolerated in society and boys
INTRODUCTION
XXXU1
and girls have to remain unmarried up to an adult
age in order that love episodes may be possible. Where
the girls are married before they attain their puberty
and when such marriages are arranged by their
relations and when other forms of non-marital love
are not recognised, the sphere of love poetry naturally
becomes very limited. One has to find some instances
of illicit love in royal spheres or one has to
deal with heavenly nymphs or carry on with the tales
of the Rdmdijana or the Mahabharata.
Taking sex-love by way of illustration, we find
that the Kamasutra, written probably towards the
beginning of the Christian era, says (1.5.3) that sex
behaviour to girls of lower caste, who are not untouch-
ables, to prostitutes and to widows prepared to marry
again, is neither recommended nor prohibited. It
is only for pleasure.1 The institution of prostitution
of higher ( or lower orders was allowed in society
without much objection. Thus when Carudatta in
Mrcchahatika was challenged that how being an
honourable man he had kept a prostitute though he
had his wife, he says, " yauvanamevatraparaddham na
caritraw." "It is only the fault of my youth and
not of my character. " In the Yajfiavalhya also we
find in the Vyavahara-adhyaya, Chap. 24, that primary
and secondary sex behaviour were only prohibited in
relation to married women, girls of higher castes
and also other girls against their wish. There was
thus a fair amount of latitude for free love and
a study of the Kuttanlmatam shows that even prostitutes
were sometimes smitten with love though it is their
profession to attract young people and deplete them of
their riches. The fact that the transgression of young
1 avaravarndsu aniravasit&su vetyatu punarbhftsu ca na rfiffo na prati-
siddhah sukharthatvat,
E— 1343B
Yet in an-
cient times
much wider
freedom was
recognised
for sex rela-
tioo.
XXXIV
INTRODUCTION
Latitude of
marriages
later on
ruled out
in practice
through the
influence of
the Smrti
laws.
girls with regard to the secondary sex acts such as
kissing, embracing and the like by other young men
was treated very lightly, is realised by reference to
Yajfiavalkya and Mitaksard.} Again, it seems from
Yajfiavalkya (Acdrddhydya — Vivdhaprakarana) that
transgression of married women unless it bore fruit, was
treated very lightly. Thus Yajfiavalkya (1.3.72) says,
vyabhicdrdd rtau suddhih, i.e., in the case of trans-
gression the woman is purified by the next menstrua-
tion. The fact also that there were so many kinds
of marriages and particularly the existence of a
gdndharva marriage shows that life was much freer
in ancient times than in later days. As the rigours
of the Smrti advanced with time and tried to stifle
free social behaviour and as social customs became
more and more puritanic and these again reacted upon
the writers of the Smrti and influence them gradually
to tighten their noose more and more, the cifrrent of
social life became gradually more and more stagnant
and unfit for free literary productions.
This also explains why the poets so often took the
theme of their subject from older Kfwyas and Puranic
legends. In itself there may be nothing wrong in
taking themes from older legends, provided the poet
could rejuvenate the legend with the spirit of his own
times. Shakespeare also drew from the legends of
Plutarch and other older writers. But though
the general scheme of the story is the same, yet the
1 somah Saucarp dadavasdrp gandharvasca hibhdm giram I
pdvakah sarva-medhyatvam medhyd vai yositohyatah II
—Yajfiavalkya, I. 3. 71,
somagandharvavahnayah strirbhuldvd yathdkramar(i tdsdm tiauca-
madhura-vacana-sarvamedhyatvani. dattavantah tasmdt striyah tarvatra
spar baling ana di§u medhydh ttuddhah smrtah II
~Mitak?ara, 1.3.71.
1NTRODUC riON
XXXV
characters have become living because Shakespeare lived
through these characters in his own imagination and
his sparkling genius took the materials of his own Mfe
from the social surroundings about him which became
rekindled by his emotion and imagination and it
was this burning colour of the characters, lived through
in the mind of the poet, that was displayed in his
dramatic creations. In the case of the Indian poets,
the legend was drawn from older Kavya or Puranic
myths but the poet himself had but little life to
infuse in the story (because in the social surroundings
in which he lived, mind was not free to move) lest he
might produce any shock on the minds of his readers
who used to live a patternised life. The force of this
remark will be easily appreciated if we remember
that Sanskrit poets who deal with illicit love seldom
make it the central theme of any big Kavya and
they utilised the little affairs of illicit love only in draw-
ing little pictures. The writers of Alamkara tell us that
wherever such illicit love is described and howsoever
beautifully may it be done, it must be taken as
rasabhasa, i.e., semblance of literary aesthetic emotion
and not real rasa or real aesthetic amorous sentiments.
A poet like Kalidasa made a successful venture in
Abhijfiana-sakuntala, where though the love was not
illicit yet it was going to shock the mind of his audience.
In order to prevent such a catastrophe, he had to take
his heroine as the daughter of a Ksattriya and a
heavenly nymph and as Dusyanta was going to repress
his emotion because it bad no sanction of society — he
was at once reminded of the fact that his mind was so
much saturated with the proper discipline of the Vedic
life that he could trust his passion as directing him
to proper action. This very passage has been quoted
by Kumarila in defence of actions that may be done
No theme
of illicit love
or love tin*
sanctioned
by the so-
cial rules
could be de-
scribed bj
poets with-
out shocking
the cultivat-
ed taste.
Kalidasa 's
treatment
of love of
romance 8.
XXXVI
INTRODUCTION
Gandbarva
marriages
were pro-
bably out
of date in
Kalidasa 's
time.
This ex-
plains the
plot of the
Sakuntald.
even without the sanction of the sastra in accordance
with the customary behaviour of those whose minds
are saturated with Vedic ideas through generations of
loyal obedience to older customs. This also explains
Manu's injunction of saddcdra as being one of the
determinants of conduct.
Kalidasa al&o arranged the gandharva marriage
which was already becoming out of date at the time.
Pie had however in his mind the instinct of compunc-
tion of a man whose mind is surcharged with senti-
ments of loyalty to the Smrti-sdstras for staging such
a romance which was not customary at the time. He
therefore introduces a curse of ancient times through the
fiery wrath of Durvasa, creating a tragic episode which
he really could not bridge except by the very unreal
staging of a drama by making the king travel to heaven
and kill demons there and meet Sakuntala in the
heavenly hermitage of Marlca. For such a king who
can travel to heaven and kill demons there, one is
prepared to give any license. But Kalidasa did not
realise how unreal was this part of the drama when
taken along the natural and normal environment of the
first part. Of course Kalidasa never hesitated to be
unreal in his dramatic treatment. Sakuntala's familia-
rity with nature in the poetic fancy that nature also
loved her is expressed in a technique which is wholly
unreal, viz., that of making the trees offer ornaments
for Sakuntala.
Rabindranath in his criticism of the drama
has interpreted it as embodying the conception of
Kalidasa that mere carnal love has a natural curse
with it, unless it is chastened by self-mortification
and tapasya. I would supplement it with a furthei
additional idea that this was probably Kalidasa's vievi
in the case of such weddings as are to produce grea!
INTHODtJCriON
XXXVll
sons like Bharata and Karttikeya. He is not loyal to
this view either in Vikramorvasl or in Malaviha-
gnamitra. In Sakuntala, however, it may rightly be
argued that the conception bad taken place through
passionate love and Sakuntala was in fairly advanced
state of pregnancy when she was repulsed from
Dusyanta's court. It may further be added that there
was no wilful self -mortification and attempt to rouse
purity through a sense of value for a great love, as was
the case of Parvati's tapasya in Kumara-sambhava,
for Sakuntala lived with her mother in heaven and was
naturally pining through sorrow of separation from
Dusyanta and wearing garment for lonely ladies as
prescribed by the Sastras. Strictly speaking there
was no tapasya for love ; it was merely a suffering for
separation and as such we cannot apply the norm of
Kumarasambhava to the drama $akuntala. From this
standpoint Rabindranath's view cannot be strictly
justified. For suffering through mere separation may
chasten the mind and improve the sterner qualities of
love, but it cannot fully affect the nature of the original
worth and such occasions of suffering may arise even in
normal circumstances. We cannot also hold that
Kalidasa believed that suffering through separation
chastens love, for we do not find it in the case of
Vikramorvasl and the Mcghaduta. It seems therefore
more pertinent to hold that the veil of unreality of a
heavenly journey and meeting the son there were
conceived as improvements on the Mahabharata story
because the gandharva form of marriage had become
obsolete and to make the issue of such a wedlock
a great emperor like Bharata might not have pleased
Kalidasa's audience.
The unreality of Vilmnnorcati is so patent that it
needs no stressing. In the Raghuvamh also there
Rabindra-
nath's
review of
Sakuntala
how far
correct.
XXXV111
INTRODUCTION
Unreality
of KilidSsa's
plots as
compared
with the
plot of
dudraka.
Overflow of
passion in
the lyrics.
Patieroisa-
tion and
insulation
of Indian
Society.
are many episodes which are wholly of a mythical
nature. Why did this happen even with a genius like
Kalidasa ? Our simple answer is that life had begun
to bte patternised even at the time of Kalidasa. People
would swallow anything that was mythical and that was
the only place in which there was some latitude for
depicting emotions. The normal life had begun to be
undramatic and uneventful. Anything beyond the
normal would have been resented as not contributing to
good taste. But Sudraka who flourished centuries
before Kalidasa, did not feel any compunction in
making the love of a courtesan the chief theme of
his drama. There, for the first and the last time,
we find a drama which is surcharged with the
normal realities of life.
But the Sanskrit poets being thwarted in dealing
with free passionate love as the chief theme of a glorious
Kavya gave indulgence to the repressed sex-motives in
gross descriptions of physical beauty and purely carnal
side of love both in long-drawn Kavyas and also in
lyrics. It is for this reason that the genius of Sanskrit
writers in their realism of life has found a much
better expression in small pictures of lyric poems than
in long-drawn epics. The repressed motive probably
also explains why we so often find carnal and gross
aspects of human love so passionately portrayed.
I do not for a moment entertain the idea that
Sanskrit poets as a rule had a puritanic temperament
or suffered from any sense of prudery. They
regarded amorous sentiment to be the first and most
important of all rasas. Indeed, there have been
writers on Alarpkara who had held the amorous
sentiment to be the only sentiment to be portrayed.
But the patternised form of society and the unreal
ways of living where every action of life was con-
INTRODUCTION XXXIX
krolled by the artificial injunction of the smrti which
always attempted to shape the mould of a progressive
society according to the pattern and model of a society
which had long ceased to exist in its natural environ-
ments and which was merely a dream or imagination,
hampered the poet's fancy to such an extent that it
could seldom give a realistic setting to the creation of
his muse. We may add to it the fact that Sanskrit
poetry grew almost in complete isolation from any
other literature of other countries. The great poetry of
Rabindranath could not have been created if he were
imprisoned only in the Sanskritic tradition. The
society of the world and the poetry of the world in all
ages are now in our midst. We can therefore be almost
as elastic as we like, though it must be admitted that
we cannot stage all ouri deas in the present social
environment of this country. Here again, we live in a Gradual
0 stratifica-
time when there are different strata of society stand- tion of
ing side by side. The present society has unfurled its 80Ciey<
wings towards future progress and in such a transi-
tional stage, the actual process of becoming and the
various stages of growth are lying one within the other.
This may be well illustrated if we take the case of men
and women living in the so-called polished and polite
society of Chowringhee and the people living in the
distant villages of Bengal. We have now in our midst an
immense number of societies having entirely different
ideals and perspectives. There must have been some
difference between people living in court atmosphere
and people living in hermitages far away from the town
such that the latter could hardly tolerate the former as
is well-expressed in the words of Sarngarava and Sarad-
vata. But on the whole there was a much greater
uniformity of society where all people followed the law
of smrti.
xl
INTRODUCTION
Arti6ciality
and unreal-
ity of the
life depicted
in the
Kavyaa.
Function
of poetry.
In conclusion I wish to suggest that the cause of the
artificiality and unreality of the life depicted in the
Kavyas is due to two facts : one, the gradual depletion
of life from society due to the rigour of the smrti and
absence of any intercourse with any foreign literature,
and the other, the conservatism for which whatever
foreign life was known to India could not in any way
influence the character and perspective of the Indians.
In this connection it is not out of place to mention
that the world of poetry was regarded as a new creation
different from the world of Nature. The purpose of
poetry is to give aesthetic enjoyment and not to give a
replica of the hard struggles of life, miseries and
sufferings. But I have reasons to think that this does
not imply that poetry should be divested from life but
it merely shows the spiritual nature of art which even
through the depicting of sorrows and sufferings produces
aesthetic pleasure. The object of poetry is mainly
to rouse our sentiments of joy and everything else
is to become its vehicle. This alone distinguishes
the material world from the world of art. Thus
Mammata says that the world of Nature is uniform
as it is produced by the power of destiny and is
dependent upon the material atoms, energy and the
accessory causes and is of the nature of pleasure,
pain and delusion, whereas the world of words
is a direct production of the poetic Muse and is
through and through interpenetrated with aesthetic joy.
It is also thought that poetry must carry with it the
delineation of an ideal or ideals not communicated by
way of authorisation, injunction or friendly advice, but
by rousing' our sympathy and interest, our joy and love
for them. It was therefore committed to the produc-
tion of something that would not in any way be shock*
ing to the sense of the good as conceived by the people.
INTRODUCTION
xli
But the relieving feature of the Sanskrit Kavyas,
inspite of the conventional themes, subjects and
ways of description, is to be found in the fact that
most of the legends drawn from the Puranas or the
older Kavyas, were often such that the people
were familiar with them and were used normally and
habitually to take interest in the heroes and heroines
which were pretty well-known. People did not also
miss naturalness and reality because they thought that
in literature- they were entering into a new world,
which was bound to be different from the world of
Nature they knew. The majesty and the grandeur
of the Sanskrit language, the sonorousness of word-
music, the rise and fall of the rhythm rolling in waves,
the elasticity of meaning and the conventional atmo-
sphere that appear in it have always made it charming
to those for whom it was written. The unreality and
conventionality appear only to a modern mind looking
at it with modern perspectives. The wealth of
imagery, the vividness of description of natural scenes,
the underlying suggestiveness of higher ideals and the
introduction of imposing personalities often lend great
charm to Sanskrit poetry.
The atmosphere of artistic creation as displayed in
a Sanskrit play, as distinguished from the atmosphere
of ordinary reality has well been described by Abhinava-
gupta in his commentary on Bharata's Natya-Sutra.
Thus, Abhinavagupta says that the constitutive words
of a Kavya produce in the mind of the proper reader
something novel, something that is over and above
the meaning of the poem. After the actual meaning of
words is comprehended there is an intuition by virtue of
which the spatio-temporal relation of particularity that
is associated with all material events disappears and a
state of universalisation is attained. When in the play of
F— 1843B
Believing
features of
Sanskrit
poetry.
The tran-
scendent
object of
literary art.
Xlii INTRODUCTION
tfafcunfa/aking Dusyanta appeared on a chariot following
a deer for piercing it with his arrows, the deer was
running in advance, turning backward its neck from time
to time to look at the chariot following it and expecting
a stroke of the arrow at every moment, and drawing its
hind legs towards the front, twisting the back muscles
and rushing forth with open mouth dropping on the way
the half-chewed grass, we have a scene of fear ; bat our
mind does not refer it to the deer of any particular time
or place or to the particular king who was hunting the
deer, and we have no idea of any fear as being of any
particular kind or belonging to a particularly localised
animal. The absence of this particularity is manifested
in the fact that we have no feeling of sorrow or anxiety
associated with it. It is because this fear arises in a
special manner in which it is divested of all association
, of particularity that it does not get mixed up with any of
our personal psychological feelings. For this reason the
Display of aesthetic experience produced by literature, the senti-
ment that is realised through delineation in art, is
devoid of any association with any particular time,
place or person. For this reason the aesthetic represen-
tation of fear or any other emotion is entirely different
from any real psychological sentiment. And therefore,
it is devoid of the ordinary associates that accompany
any real psychological sentiment that is felt personally
as belonging to a real person in a particular spatio-
temporal setting. Abhinava says that in such a fear
the self is neither absolutely hidden nor illuminated in
its individual personal character (tathdvidhe hi bhaye
natyantamatma tirashrto na vitesatah ullikhitah). The
artistic creation and representation then appear in an
atmosphere of light and darkness, shadow and illumina-
tion in which the reference to the real person and the
real time and place is dropped. As when we ipfer the
INTRODUCTION
xliii
existence of fire from smoke we do not make any
reference to any special fire or any special smoke,
so here also the aesthetic sentiment has no localised
aspect. When through the gestures, of the players
different sentiments are aroused in the minds of the
observers, then the representation so intuited ^s
divested of the spatio-temporal relations .
In the external world things exist in an inter-related
manner and the negation of some of these relations
imply also a negation of the other relations. For this
reason when the mind becomes unrelated to the spatio-
temporal relations and the actual personalities then the
sentiment that is roused is divested of personalities and
the actual conditions and the importance is felt of the
roused sentiment alone.
There is in our unconscious mind an instinctive
attraction for different kinds of enjoyment as well as sub-
conscious or unconscious impressions of various kinds
of satisfactions. When aesthetic sentiments as disso-
ciated from their actual environments of the original
are roused in the mind, these become affiliated to or
reconciled to the relevant root-impressions or instincts
and that transforms the presentation into a real emotion
though they are divested from the actual surroundings
of the original. It is because the aesthetic emotion is
roused by mutual affiliation of the representation and the
in-lying dormant root-passions which are common to all
that there can be a communion of aesthetic sentiments
among observers, which is the ultimate message of art-
communication (ata eva sarva-samajikanamekaghana*
tayaiva pratipatteh sutardm rasa-pariposaya sarve?am
anadi-vasana-citrikfta-cetasam vasanaswiivadat) .
We thus see that universalisation is of two kinds.
On the one hand, there is the universalisation of the
representation consisting of the depletion from it of the
The sort of
personality
roused in
art.
Aesthetic
emotion.
(Jnivem*
li sit ion in
poetrj.
xliv INTRODUCTION
actual conditions of the environment and the actual
personalities. On the other hand, there is another kind
of universalisation with reference to its enjoyment.
The enjoyment is more or less of the same type for all
qualified observers and readers. All persons have the
same type of dormant passions in them and it is by
being affiliated with those dormant passions that the
aesthetic emotions bloom forth. For this reason in the
case of all qualified observers and readers the aesthetic
emotion enjoyed is more or less of the same type
though there may be individual differences of taste on
account of the existence of specific differences in the
dormant passions and the nature of representations.
In any case, where such aesthetic emotion is not
bound with any ties and conditions of the actual world
it is free and spontaneous and it is not trammelled or
polluted by any alien feelings. The aesthetic quality
called camatkara manifests itself firstly, as an aesthetic
consciousness of beauty, and secondly, as the aesthetic
delight, .and thirdly, as nervous exhilaration,
of Abhinava is unable to define the actual mental
experience, status of aesthetic experience. It may be called
an intuition, a positive aesthetic state, imagina-
tion, memory or a mere illumination (sa ca
sakstitkara-svabhavo manasa-dhyavasayo vd samkalpo
ud smrtirvd tathdtcena sphurann-astu
api tu pratibhdnd-para-paryydyd sdksdtktira-
svabhdveyam), Our ordinary experiences are bound
with spatio-temporal environments and conditions.
In literature there cannot be such obstacles. When
without any obstruction the rooted passions bubble
forth as aesthetic emotion we have the emotion of lite-
rature. At the time of knowing ordinary objects we
have the objects as actually transcending our knowledge
which have an objective reality and which cannot be
INTRODUCTION xlv
caught within the meshes of knowledge. When I see
a tree standing before me I can only see certain colours
spatially distributed before me but the actual tree itself
is beyond that knowledge of colour. Being connected
with an object which exists transcending my colour-
perception and which cannot be exhausted within that
colour-perception, our knowledge cannot stand by itself
without that object. For this reason perceptual ex-
perience cannot wholly discover for us the object. So
in our inner perception of pleasure or pain there is the
ego within us which is unknown in itself and is known
only so far as it is related to the emotions through
which we live. For this reason here also there is the
unknown element, the ego, which is not directly
known. Our experiences of pleasure and pain being
integrally related to it, we have always an undiscovered
element in the experience of ordinary pleasure and
pain. Pleasure and pain, therefore, cannot reveal them-
selves to us in their entire reality or totality. Thus,
both our inner experiences of pleasure and pain and our
objective experience of things being always related to
something beyond them cannot reveal themselves in
their fulness. Our knowledge thus being incomplete in
itself runs forth and tries to express itself through
hundreds of relations. For this reason our ordinary
experience is always relative and incomplete. Here our
knowledge cannot show itself in its wholeness and self-
complete absolute totality. Our knowledge is always
related to an external object the nature of which
is unknown to us. Yet it is on the basis of that
unknown entity that knowledge manifests itself. It
is therefore naturally incomplete. It can only express
itself in and through a manifold of relations.
But the aesthetic revelation is manifested without
involving the actual object within its constituent
xlvi
INTRODUCTION
Idealistic
outlook of
Indian
Aesthetics.
Concept of
Indian
drams.
content. It is, therefore, wholly unrelated to any loca-
lised object or subject. The aesthetic revelation is thus
quite untrammelled by any objective tie.
I do not wish to enter any further into the
recondite analysis of the aesthetic emotion as given
t>y the great critic of literature, Abhinavagupta.
But what I wish to urge is that the writers of Indian
drama had not on the one hand the environment consis-
ting of a social life that was progressive and free
where concussions of diverse characters could impress
their nature on them and on the other hand they
regarded that the main importance of literature
was not the actuality and concreteness of real life
but they thought that the purpose of literature was
the creation of an idealised atmosphere of idealised
emotions divested from all associations of concrete actual
and objective reality. Thus, Dr. De says : " Sanskrit
drama came to possess an atmosphere of sentiment and
poetry which was conducive to idealistic creation at the
expense of action and characterisation, but which in
lesser dramatists overshadowed all that was dramatic
in it/'
According to the Sanskrit rhetoricians, Kavya is
divided into two classes — drsya and sravya, i.e., what can
be seen and what can be heard. Neither the Sanskrit
rhetoricians nor the poets made any essential distinc-
tion between Kavya and drama, because the object of
them both is to create aesthetic emotion by rousing
the dormant passions through the aesthetic representa-
tion or the art-communication. Our modern concep-
tion that drama should show the repercussions of
human mind through a conflict of action and*re-action
in actual life cannot be applied in^ judging the Indian
dramas. The supreme creator of the world, Brahman,
produces the world out of Him as the* representation of
INTRODUCTION
xlvii
magical hallucination which has order and uniformity
as well as unchangeable systems of relations, but
which is all the same a mirage or mayd and is relatively
-temporary. The poet also moves his magic wand
and drawing upon the materials of the world, weaves
a new creation which possesses its own law but which
is free from any spatio-temporal bondage of particularity
in the objective world. It becomes spread out in our
aesthetic consciousness where the aesthetic delight
may show itself without being under the limitation
of the objective world and the ordinary concerns and
interests of the subjective mind. Yet there are some
dramas at least like the Mrcchakitika and the
Mudrardksasa which satisfy our modern standards of
judgment about drama.
Consistent with the view that drama was not
regarded by the Sanskrit poets as a composition in
which the conflict of action and re-action and the
struggle of passions are to be delineated, the Sanskrit
poets as a rule abstained from showing any violent
action or shocking scenes or shameful episodes or
gross demonstration of passion or anything revolting
in general on the stage. They had a sense of perfect
decorum and decency so that the total effect intended
by the drama might not in any way be vitiated. Con-
sonant with this attitude and with the general optimism
of Indian thought and philosophy that the world-
process ultimately tends to beatitude and happiness
whatsoever pains and sufferings there may be in the
way — that Indian drama as a rule does not end
tragically ; and to complete the effect we have often a
benedictory verse to start with or a verse of adoration,,
and a general benediction for all in the end so that
the present effect of the drama may leave a lasting
impression on the mind, Indian culture as a rule
The idea
behind the
happy
ending of
Indiao
dramas.
Xlviii INTRODUCTION
does not believe that the world is disorderly and that
accidents and chance-occurrences may frustrate good
life and good intentions, or that the storms and stress
of material events are purposeless and not inter-related
with the moral life of man. On the other hand, the
dominant philosophical belief is that the whole
material world is integrally connected with the destiny
of man and that its final purpose is the fulfilment of
the moral development of man. %Even the rigorous
SmrtUastra which is always anxious to note our
transgressions has always its provisions for the expiation
of our sins. No sins or transgressions can be strong
enough to stick to a man ; it may be removed either by
expiation or by sufferings. Freedom and happiness
are the birth-right of all men. The rigorous life
imposed upon an ascetic is intended to bring such
beatitude and happiness as may be eternal.
Consonant with such a view the ideal of art should be
not one of laying emphasis on the changeful and
accidental occurrences but on the law and harmony
of justice and goodness and ultimate happiness. When
we read the dramas of Shakespeare and witness -the
sufferings of King Lear and of Desdemona or of Hamlet,
we feel a different philosophy. We are led to think
that the world is an effect of chaotic distribution and
redistribution of energy, that accidents and chance
occurrences are the final determinants of events and the
principle of the moral government of the world is only
a pious fiction. But Indian culture as a rule being
committed to the principle of the moral fulfilment of
man's values as being ultimate does seldom allow
the poets and artists to leave the destiny of the world
to any chance occurrence. Chance occurrences and
accidents do ipdeed occur and. when the whole is
not within" our perspective they may seem to rule
INTRODUCTION xlix
the world. But this is entirely contrary to Indian
outlook. Granting that in our partial perspective this
may appear to be true, yet not being reflective of the
whole it is ugly, unreal and untrue and as such it is
not worthy of being manifested through art, for the
final appeal of art lies in a region where beauty,
goodness and truth unite. The genuine art is supposed
to rouse our sattva quality. It is these sattva qualities
which in their tripartite aspects are the final source
from which truth, goodness and beauty spring.
According to the Hindu theory of Art, there cannot
be any impure aesthetic delight and all aesthetic
delight beautifies and purifies our soul. It is for this
reason that even when the drama has a tragic end the
effect of the tragic end is softened and mellowed by other
episodes. Thus in the Uttaracarita the pivot of the
drama is the desertion of Slta. But the effect of this
desertion is more than mollified by the episode of the
third act in which Rama's passionate love for Sita is so
excellently portrayed and by the happy manner in
which the drama ends.
We may regard the Mahabharata and the Rdmdyana The ,
bhdrata9
as the earliest specimens of great works written in the its dynamic
kdvya style. Though the Mahabharata underwent
probably more than one recension and though there
have been many interpolations of stories and episodes
yet it was probably substantially in a well-formed
condition even before the Christian era. I have
elsewhere tried to prove that the Bhagavadgita was
much earlier as a specimen of the Vdkovdkya literature
which was integrated in the Mahabharata as a whole.
It is of interest to note that the whole tone of the
Mahabharata is in harmony with that of the Gtta. The
Mahabharata is not called a kdvija, it is called an itihdsa
and judged by the standard of a kavya it is unwieldy,
£— 1343B
1 INTRODUCTION
massive and diffuse. It does not also follow any of
the canons prescribed for a mahakavya by later
rhetoricians. But it is thoroughly dramatic in its
nature, its personages often appear with real characters
and the conflict of actions and re-actions, of passions
against passions, of ideals and thoughts of diverse
nature come into constant conflict and dissolve
themselves into a flow of beneficent harmony. It is a
criticism of life, manners and customs and of
changing ideals. It is free, definite and decisive and
the entire life of ancient India is reflected in it as in a
mirror. It contains no doubt descriptions of Nature,
it abounds also in passages of love, but its real
emphasis is one of life and character and the conflict of
different cultures and ideals and it shows a state of
society which is trying to feel its course through a
chaotic conflict of different types of ideas and customs
that mark the character of a society in a state of
transition. Various stereotyped ideals of old are
discussed here and dug to the roots as it were for
discovering in and through them a certain fundamental
principle which could be the basis of all morality and
society. The scheme of the VarnaSrama-dharma was
still there and people were required to do their duties
in accordance with their own varnas. To do good
to others is regarded in the Mahabharata as the solid
foundation of duty. Even truth had its basis in it.
But still in the cause of one's duty and for the cause
of right and justice the Ksattriya w?}s always bound
to fight without attaching any personal interest in the
fruits of his actions.
These and similar other principles as well as moral
stories and episodes are appended with the main story
of the Mahabharata and thus it is a great store-house
which holds within it at least implicitly a large part
INTRODUCTION
li
of ancient Indian culture and history of thoughts. The
style of the whole is easy and flowing and there is seldom
any attempt at pedantry or undue ornamentation. The
style of the Ramayana, however, is much more
delightful and it reveals genuine poetry of the first
order. It is for this reason that the Ramayana has
always been looked upon as unapproachable model not
only by lesser poets but also by poets like Kalidasa
and Bhavabhuti.
Bhamaha and other writers think, however, that
the essential condition that contributes to the charm
of alamkara and kavya as well is atifayokti or the
over-statement of the actual facts. This over-statement
does not only mean exaggeration but a new way of
approach to things, a heightening of value which
also constitutes the essence of vakrokti. In what-
ever way one may heighten the value of that which
was a mere fact of Nature it would contribute to poetry.
In every type of poetry, even in svabMvokti, the poet
has to re-live within him the facts of Nature or the
ordinary experiences of life and it is by such an inner
enjoyment of the situation that the poet can contribute
a part of his own inner enjoyment and spiritual pers-
pective to the experiences themselves.1 Mere state-
ment of facts in which there is no sign that the
poet lived through it cannot make literature. "The
sun has set, the birds are going to their nests "
— are mere informations. They do not constitute
kavya.* Thus the so-called alanikaras are often but
1 sai§d sarvaiva vakroktiranaydrtho vibhavyate I
yatno'syarp kavind kdryah ko'larpkaro'nayd vind II
-Bhamaba, II. 85.
* gato'stamarko bhattndurydnti vdsdya pakqinah I
ityevamddi fettp kdvyavp vdrttdmendip pracakfate II
— Bhftmaha, II. 87.
The essence
of K&vja as
the height-
ened ezpres.
sion of
experience.
Ill
the signs which show that the poet has re-lived
through his ordinary experiences with his aesthetic
functions and has thus created art. An over-emphasis
of them, however, or a wilful effort at pedantry which
does not contribute to beauty is indeed a fault. But
in a poet like Bana we find the oriental grandeur
of decoration which,, though majestic and pompous, is
nevertheless charming.
SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF LITERATURE
The choice if we take a review of the subject matter of the
of subjects. '
various kavyas and dramas, we find that the plots
are mostly derived from the Mahabharata, the Rama-
yana and sometimes from some of the Puranas, some-
times from the stories of great kings, or religious and
martial heroes, or sometimes from floating stories or from
the great story-book of Gunadhya and its adciptations,
and sometimes from the traditional episodes about kings
and sometimes also from stories invented by the poet
himself. But as we move forward through the
centuries, when the freedom of thought and views and
ideas became gradually more and more curbed, the choice
of subjects on the parts of the poets became almost wholly
limited tp the stories of the Ramayana and the Maha-
bharata. This would be evident to anyone who will read
the history of Sanskrit literature as presented here
together with editorial comments at the end of the book.
Works of literature are not mere plays of imagina-
tion or of solitary caprices of the brain, but they may
be said to be transcripts of contemporary manners or as
representing types of certain kinds of mind. It is some-
times held that from the works of literature one might
form a picture of the modes of human feelings and
thoughts through the progressive march of history.
iNTftODUCTION liil
Maramata in his Kavyaprakasa says that krivya produces
fame, one can know from it the manners and customs of
the age and that it produces immediate artistic
satisfaction of a transcendent order both for the reader
and for the writer and it is also instructive by the
presentation of great ideals in a sweet and captivating
manner like that of one's lady love.
We can understand the history of literature of
any country only by regarding it as being merely a
product, a flower as it were, of the entire history
rising upwards towards the sun like a gigantic tree
with outspreading branches. 'It may be difficult to
follow the tree from branch to branch and from leaf
to leaf, but the tree has left its mark, the type to
which it belongs, in its flowers. One can classify
the histories of the various people by comparing
the essential characteristics of the literature as much
as one can classify the trees through the flowers./ It is
indeed true that an individual poet, though he may
belong to his age, may have his own peculiarity of
temperament and interest by which he may somewhat
transcend the age. But such transcendence cannol
altogether change the character of his mind whict
is a product of his society.
Genuine history does not consist of the wars and History
battles that are fought, the accession and deposition
of kings ; so if we judge of literature, it is not mere
mythology or language or dogmas or creeds which may
be discovered from certain documents that constitute
literature, but it is the men that have created it. The
general characteristics of an age can also become vivid
if we can portray before our mind the individual men.
Everything exists only through the individuals and we
must become acquainted with the typical individual. We
may discover the sources of dogmas, classify the poems,
llV INTRODUCTION
realise the political constitution of the country or
analyse the language in accordance with the linguistic
principles and so far clear the ground. But genuine
history is brought to light only when the historian
discovers and portrays across the lapse of centuries the
living men as to how they worked, how they felt, how
they are hemmed in by their customs, so that we may
feel that we hear_ their voice, seeTBelr gestures, postures
and features, their dress and garment, just as we can do
of friends whom we have visited in the morning or seen
in the street.
If we want to study a modern French poet
like Alfred de Musset, or Victor Hugo, we may
imagine him, as Taine says, " in his black coat and
gloves, welcomed by the ladies and making every
evening his fifty bows and his score of bon-mots
in society, reading the papers in the morning,
lodging as a rule on the second floor ; not over-
gay because he has nerves and specially because
in this dense democracy where we choke one another,
the discredit of the dignities of office has exaggerated
his pretensions while increasing his importance and
because the refinement of his feelings in general
disposes him somewhat to believe himself a deity."
Then again, if we take a poet like .Racine of the 17th
century, we can imagine him to be elegant, courtier-
like, a fine speaker, with a majestic wig and ribbon-
shoes, both Koyalist and a Christian, clever at enter-
taining a prince, very respectful to the great, always
knowing his place, assiduous and reserved, at Marly
as at Versailles, among the regular pleasures of a
polished society, brimming with salutations, graces,
airs and fopperies of the Lords, who rose early in
the morning to obtain the promise of being appointed
to some office, in case of the death of the present holder,
INTRODUCTION 1\T
and among charming ladies who can count their
genealogies on the fingers in order to obtain the right
of sitting at a particular place in the court. So also
when we read a Greek tragedy we must be able to
imagine of well-formed beautiful figures living half-
naked in the gymnasia or in the public squares under
the most enchanting panorama of views ; nimble and
strong, conversing, discussing, voting, yet lazy and
temperate, waited on by slaves so as to give them
leisure to cultivate their understanding and exercise
their limbs and with no desire beyond attending to
what is beautiful. We can get a picture of such
a Greek life from thirty chosen passages of Plato
and Aristophanes much better than we can get from
a dozen of well-written histories.
If we wish to picture before our mind the life of a city
beau in jmcient India we cnn imagine him as having a
house beside a lake with a garden beside it, having many
rooms for his works, for meeting people, for sleep and
for bath — a house divided into an external and internal
part, the internal part for the ladies. His bed is
covered with a white sheet made fragrant with incense,
pillowed on both sides, the head and the feet, and
very soft in the middle, with a seat for an idol or image
of a deity at the head-side of the bed, a small table
with four legs of the same height as the bed on which
there are flower-garlacds, sandal-paste, a little wax
in a vesseI7~~a little fragrant fan, spices; there is
a spitoon on the grouncTTThe ' Vina ' is hanging on
a peg in the wall; there is a number of pictures
hanging in proper positions in the wall, articles for
painting on a table, some books of poems and some gar-
Ian JsT The seats inTfie room are covered with beauti-
ful covers ; outside in the verandah there are probably
birds in a cage and arrangements of diverse sports in
Ivi INTRODUCTION
the yard, a jwing bagging jp a shady ^ place ; and an
elevated quadrangle for sitting at pleasure.
The beau rises in the morning, performs his
morning ablutions, offers his morning prayers and other
i^IigqusJdufi'^T^besmears himself faintly with sanjial-
paste and wears clothes fragrant with the smoke
of aguru, wears a garland on his hair^ slightly paints
hisTipsfwith red, chewTbetel leaves, and looking at his
face at a mirror, ~^T~gb out to perform his daily
duties. He takes his bath everyday, cleanses.his Jyjdy
with perfumes, gets himself massaged, sometimes
—• !,„, ; ______ i i i -- -i--*- < -"• "*"""* ">""•*"" *.. '•— "'
takes vapour-baths, shaves generally every three da^s,
takes his meals in the middle of the day, in the
afternoon and also in the night; after meals he would
either play or go to sleep and in the evenings gojput
tojbe clubs for sport. The early part of the niight
maybgipent in music jmd the night in love-making of
j receiving ladies and attending to them.
He arranges^ fg&tivities on the occasions of worship of
particular godjs; in_ the clubs he talks about literature
in small groups, he sits together and drinks, goes out
to gardens and indulges in sports. On festive occasions
in the temple of Sarasvat! dramatic performances are
held^jand actors and dancers from different temples
come and meet together for the performance. Guests
are received and well attended to. The clubs were
generally located in the houses of courtesan^ or in
special houses or in the houses of some members of the
club: These clubs were often encouraged by the kings
and in such places men more or less of the same age,
intelligence, character and riches, met and spent their
time in mutual conversation or conversation with
courtesans. There they discussed literature, or prac-
tised dramatic art, dancing, singing, etc. They would
often drink wines at each other's houses,
INTRODUCTION
Ivii
Raja^ekhara describes the daily Jifej>f a poet. He
rises in the morning, performs his morning duties
including religious practices. Then sitting at leisure
in his study-room, he studies books relevant to poetry
for about three hours and for about another three hours
he engages himself in writing poetry. Towards midday,
he takes his bath and meals, after which he again
engages himself in literary conversations and literary
work. In the afternoon, in association with chosen
friends he criticises the work done in the morning.
When a person writes something under the inspiration
of emotion he cannot always be critical. It is there-
fore desirable that he should criticise his own work and
try to better the composition in association with chosen
friends. He then re- writes the work. JJ§ ^ sleeps
for six hours and in the early hours of the morning
he reviews the work of the previous day. There are,
however, poets who have no restrictions of time and
are always engaged in writing poetry. Such poets
have no limitations of time as those engaged in services
of some kind or other. Well-placed women such as
princesses, daughters of high officials and courtesans as
well as the wives of gay people became often highly
learned and also poets.
It is the business of the king to establish an
assembly of poets. When the king himself is a poet,
he would often make assembly halls for the poets
where all learned people assemble as well as musicians,
actors, dancets and gingers. £lbe kings Vasudeva,
Satavahana, Sudraka, probably all had established such
academies/) It is for this reason that in the capitals
of great kings learning bad so often flourished. Thus,
Kalidasa, Mentha, Amara, Rupa, Sura, Bharavi,
Bhattara Haricandra and Candragupta flourished in
Ujjayini. So also Upavarsa, Varsa, Panini, Pingala,
Life of
poet aftc
RajaSekban
Early
academies.
1V111 INTRODUCTION
Vyacji, Vararuci, Patanjali and others flourished in
Pataliputra.1
We know from Arthatastra that all kinds of
teaching of fine arts and literature were encouraged
by the Mauryyas and that teachers of music, dancing,
acting, etc., were maintained out of the provincial
revenue.) The kings held in their courts from time to
time great exhibitions of poets and scholars, where they
wrangled with one another and vied for victory in
literary contests. There were often Poet Laureates
•»-« .-»« • —»'*- --• ~< " - —
attached to the king's court. Srlharsa says that in the
W 9*Ha*n*""*~***"' **~- -" '-•*
court of Jayacandra a seat was reserved for him and he
was offered two betel-leaves as a mark of honour,
of ^et us look at the autobiography of Bana who lived
in the court of Srlharsa in the J7th century. . He tells
us that his mother died when he was quite young and
his father also died when he was almost of the age of
fourteen. He was studying at the time and he had
sufficient wealth to maintain himself at home. But
with the beginning of youth he was impatient and got
into naughty habits. At this time he got a number
of associates and friends. (A little scrutiny into the
%§k~oJL ..associates that Bana had may give us an idea
of the sort of people that lived in the city and bow in
the city life all classes of people mixed together^ Thus
he says that he had for his associates Candasena and
Matrsena, who were born out of a Brahmin father and
a Sudra mother, the poet Isana, B^ra and NarayanaT
who were learned ^schdar^ Bharata^Jjhe composer of
Sanskrit songs, Vgyu-vikara, who was born in the
1 iha kalidasa-inenthav-atra'maiarfipa-sura'bhdravayah/
haiicandra-candraguptau parik§itav'ilia vMlayam//
Myate ca pa^aliputre sastrakara-parlkfd, —
atro-pavar$a-var<av-iha pdnini-pihgalav-iha vyadify/
varamci-patanjali iha parikfitah khyatim upajagmuh//
r- Kavyarolmarpss, Ch, Xt
INTRODUCTION lix
family of those who made songs in Prakrt, Anarigavana
and Sucivana, two ladies, Katy ay anika and Cakra-
vakika, Ma^uraka the forester, Candaka the seller of
beteMeaves, Mandaraka the _j£ader, " Candaka the
gbysician, Sudrsji the artist, Siddhasena the go'dsmith
and jeweller, Govinda the writer, Vfravarmaja , the
painjgr, Kumaradatta the varnisher, Jlmuta the drum-
mer, Somila and Grahaditya Jhe singers. Kuramnka
»*• •» <~ «. , „ .. ,..,." *" _»,•!. MQ -*** °
the independent artisan girl, the pipers, Madhukara
and Paravata, Darduraka the teacher of dancing,
Keralika the massage-girl, the dice-player Akhan<Jal#ka,
the dancing-master Tandavika, fhe actor Sikhandaka,
the nun J3umati, the monk_yiradeva, the dancing-girl
Haramika, the' reciter Jayasena, the saiva Vakraghoija,
the enchanter Karalakesa, and the magician .Cakoraksa,
Being overcome by such an association he went out of
his home for seeing different countries in an irrespon-
sible manner and after a time returned to his country.
He then describes the atmosphere of Vedic studies and
sacrifices that prevailed among his relations. Their
houses rang always with the sound of Vedic recitations.
People had their forehead besmeared with ashes, their
long hairs were brown like fire. The children^^who
came to see the sacrificial ceremonies, sat on different
s^gs. There were little hollows which were softened
with the flowing soma-juice. The^ards were green
with grass. The signs "of dark deer were lying about
on wKiclT lay the sacrificial cakes and sacrificial rice.
"The nwara paddy were scattered about on the sands.
Hundreds of holy^d[scipies were bringing the green
ku6a, thesacrificmljvood, qowdung; the yard was mark-
ed everywhere with the hoofs of cows that supplied
milk for the sacrificial £W^|i- Many of the sacri-
ficers were busy besmearing their kamandalus with
mud. Heaps of branches of fig tree were lying about
ix
for sacrificial pegs. The whole ground was rendered
brown by the sacrificial offerings. The smoke of the
clarified butter had darkened the foliage of trees.
Gradual We have again in Harsacarita the description of
cit/We from splendour and magnificence of the capital ^and^ the
the tillages? court of a Hindu king and the description as to
how he encouraged scholars and poets, artists and
scientists as also the pleasures of a city-life, \ As we
read Kalidasa describing court scenes many centuries
before, we find that the ^court-Jife was not so far
removed by its splendour and majesty from the life
of ordinary people, the citizens, the members of the
hermitage, and the like.j Dillpa ju iisujourney to the
hermitage of Va&stha goes alone with his wife looking
at the village scenes and talking with the rustic* people
on the way. His personal greatness, strength and
vigour of character made such an appearance of his
great personality that though alone he appeared as if he
was in accompaniment of a host of retinue and army.
'There is a naive simplicity in the portrayal of Dillpa
and Du?yanta, of Vikrama and Pusyamitra which
we cannot find in Bana's portrayal. As we move up
to Bhasa, we find that life in general, whether^ in
court^^^outaide1 was more akin to the description
that we find in the Arthasastra, ^yith the difference
that performances of Vedic sacrifices have a greater
prominence in the lives of kings than what we find
in the portrayal of royal lives in Kalidasa or
Bana. } Already in Kalidasa the hermits from the forest
cannot regard the city-life and the court-life with
complacence. Sarngarava and Saradvata think of
the court of Dusyanta as a hall surrounded with fire.
Neither Vikrama nor Dusyanta performs any sacrifice
and when Pusyamitra does it, he does so with a sense
of majesty and greatness. Entirely different is the
INTRODUCTION Ixi
portrayal of the kings of the past age with whom
performances of sacrifices and gifts are almost a normal
routine. Even the great hero, Raghu, leaves up his all
after his conquering career in his sacrifice.
£We thus see that as we move along the centuries,
the court-life becomes gradually separated from
the life of the people as a wholep With this
separation new types of characters and professionals
of diverse description began to grow up and the court
atmosphere and the city atmosphere gradually became
alienated from the life of the people as a whole. Yet
the older Vedic life and its ideals, as they became more
and more hazy and dreamy, began to assume almost a
supernatural hold consisting of fear and hope for the
people at large. The influence of the legal literature
with their injunctions and restrictions, became more
and more stringent and more and more stiffened and
inelastic as time went on. (li seems that the people as
a whole tolerated the court-life, but hardly assimilated
it in their blood. \ An artificial division was thus
created and more and more emphasised as we take a
long perspective through the centuries from a position
of an early eminence. With the inrush and settlement
of Islamic supremacy and the practical destruction of
Hindu court-life the breakage became almost complete.
In a climate like that of India, people indeed appreciat-
ed the passionate side of life and even from the time
of the Mauryyas or even earlier than that, the courte-
sans had almost an unrestricted importance and the
urban taste often descended into vulgarity. We have
the figure in terra cotta of a dancing girl discovered in
the Mauryya level in Patna, where the girl is wearing
shining apparels all over her body but her prominent
breasts are shown uncovered. /1\Iost of the woman-
figures in ancient art show the bosoms of young women
Ixii INTKObUCTIOfc
in an uncovered manner.) This tallies with the des-
cription of women's breasts in so many of our Sanskrit
erotic verses which are shocking to our modern taste .^
More than this, we find Sanskrit poets vying with one
another in the description of the most delicate acts of
sex-life illustrating, as it were, the descriptions in the
Kama-sutra. But be it as it may, the normal judg-
ment of tEe audience had most often a sound inclination
and in order to cater to this taste, we often find that
a drama or a kavya most often had a moral lesson to
impart, though it ran always as an undercurrent. It
is for this reason that stories from the Ramayana, the
Mahabharata and the Puranas played such an impor-
extenfliveij tant-part for the formation of plots of Kavyas and
dramas. In decadent times, most of the dramas and
kavyas drew their inspiration from religious mythology.
In and through such religious mythology the poets
could gratify the expression of their erotic sentiments
and could also cater to kindred sentiments among the
audience without the fear of shocking their taste or
appearing irreligious. In Sanskrit and particularly
in Bengali poetry that flourished in the 16th and 17th
centuries we find that erotic sentiments displayed
through the divine personages of Krsna and Radha
became the religious creed of a particular sect of
Vaisnavism. Such expressions of eroticism were un-
related to marital restrictions and it was supposed that
such dalliance between Krsna and Radha took place in
transcendental bodies to which criticisms from the stand-
point of ordinary mundane life were hot applicable.
They were the demonstrations of love in life divine and
a devotee may enjoy them from an upper sphere of
spirituality with which the carnal being is out of con-
tact. This idea of transforming eroticism into a religion
had not its beginniag only in the 15th or 16th century
INTRODUCTION
literature of Bengal but it can be traced in the Bhaga-
vata and other literature as early as the 5th or 6th
century A.D.
It may be pointed out in this connection that sex 8a*fkvreitm
liberty in fields other than marital were allowed in
society and accepted by the legal literature, though not
approved by the higher conscience of the people. The
existence and persistence of niyoga for a long time in
Hindu society shows that even in marital spheres sex
liberty was allowed in a restricted form. The existence
of various kinds of marriages and the legal rights allow-
ed to children produced in a non-marital manner also
illustrate the contention. In pre-Christian times, the
Gandharva form of marriage was regarded as quite
respectable and a girl of a certain age was given the
right to choose her own husband, if the parents had not
married her within a prescribed age. We find in
Kalidasa that Dusyanta says that tradition goes that
daughters of kings had married according to the
Gandharva custom and that such marriages were
approved by parents. This shows that in Kalidasa's
time at least the Gandharva marriage was going out of
fashion. But in the story of Vasavadatta in Bhasa and
also in Avimaraka, it appears that no exception was taken
to the Gandharva marriage. But for the restriction by
the Privy Council the law of Gandharva marriage still
holds according to Hindu Law. But as early as the
story of Vilhana we find that in spite of the provision
of Hindu Law the Gandharva form of marriage was not
recognised by the society.
But side by side with this liberty of marriage of
earlier times, the rules of Smrfci gradually made marriage
of women more and more binding before the attainment
of puberty. Thus, excepting in the case of nymphs or
daughters of nymphs, or girls of kings,, from older
INTRODUCTION
stories, like that of Gunadhya, themes of free love
between adult men and women are indeed very rare in
Sanskrit dramas. The Malatlmadhava is a pratyrana
or that type of drama where the plot is invented by the
poet. But though the story as a whole is new, elements
of it are mostly found in the Katha-sarit-sagara. In
Sudraka's Mrcchakatika we have a portrayal of love
between the courtesan Vasantasena and Carudatta*.
But yet we have a host of Sanskrit verses which
deal with the love of abhisarikas or those women who
themselves come to the houses of their beloved at night.
In the Kama-sutra also we find that the houses of the
nagaras were visited by the abhisarikas. But there is
hardly any instance, apart from the kathd literature,
wherein any respectable girl has been depicted as
playing the part of ao abhisarika. In the anthologies
and £atakas we have almost a superabundance of love
poems which are apparently of a non -marital character.
But these are mostly single 61okas depicting a love
scene, portraying a passion, or a love situation, without
any reference to the sort of persons between whom this
love was carried on.
Mammata makes a distinction between rasa and
rasabhasa (semblance of rasa). l When a woman has
many lovers or when illicit love is expressed, or when
love is not responded to, or if the expression of love be
with regard to intimate relations of a higher status, such
expression of love is shocking to the audience and is
called semblance of amorous sentiment (rasabhasa).
Thus, some of the best erotic poems have been counted
1 tadabhasd anaucitya-pravartitah Kdvya-prakdta IV. 49.
anaucityarp ca sahfdaya-vyavaharato jfleyarpi yatra te$am anucitamiti dhih.
tacca &fbgare bahu-viQayatvena upanayakadi-gatatvena nayaka-nayikanyatara-
matravi$ayatvena guru-jana-gatatvena tiryagadi-gatatvadina ca nanaiva.
Uddyota commentary on the above as quoted in Jhalkikar's edition of Kavya>
prakdfa.
INTRODUCTION
Ixv
by many critics as examples of rasabhasa. Sarada-
tanaya in his Bhava-prakatana of the 12th century
modified this definition to a considerable extent and
regarded that only when a description of love is such
that it creates laughter that it is called rasabhasa.
If we take the general sweep of the growth of
Indian civilisation and culture we find that Hindu
life in India opens with the pretty vast collection
of poems called the. Vedas, which are surcharged with
the impressions of Nature in its beautiful, tender,
terrific and tempestuous aspects produced upon the
extremely sensitive minds of the Indian people. The
Aryans when colonising in India came amongst people
who were either extremely barbaric and uncivilized,
or who, as in the Indus Valley and in the South,
were people who had a civilisation entirely different
from theirs. The Aryans clung to their social order
of the four varnas, to their Vedas and to their
original customs and rights in order to keep their
integrity amongst an alien and barbaric people. Their
original religion consisted of hymns to the Nature gods
as preserved in the Vedas along with certain simple
rites. It is difficult to reconstruct the nature of these
rites as they have become merged in the complexity
of rituals associated with the necessity of the preserva-
tion of fire. The Vedic prose writings evolved by
way of elaborating and systematising these sacrificial
details. But as the Vedic families grew in number and
expanded in different directions in the East and the
South a separate secular life evolved and differentiated
from the original Vedic structure and it gave rise to
various professions as cities began to grow. The
original motive of the early Vedic hymns was religious
worship &nd as such Sanskrit literature has seldom been
able to free itself from the religio-raoral element. But
I-1348B
Growth of
Indian civi-
lisation
from Vedic
literature.
INTRODUCTION
with the expansion of life two other motives differentiated
themselves in an absolutely clear and distinct form.
The Vedic religion had its magical element with refer-
ence to supra-mundane happiness and all through the
development of Indian religion and philosophy it had
never been able to get rid of this magical element. The
philosophy of the Vedanta, the Buddhism, the Yoga and
the Samkhya have always to depend upon the concept of
magic and illusion as the fundamental pivot of the
superstructure of these philosophies.
Natural But with regard to the mundane affairs, the Indians
India. have always been absolutely definite, concrete and
realistic in their conceptions. There is no mysticism
whatsoever in Sanskrit poetry. They are all based upon
concrete and tangible emotions. The inexhaustible
wealth of natural phenomena in a country of tropical
climate girdled by great mountain ranges, deep and
extensive oceans interspersed with long and wide rivers ;
where the seasons appear in so marked a manner,
with glorious colours of the sky, the glowing sunshine,
silvery moonbeams, the pouring sonorous rains, the
sweet and green verdure, the blossoming fragrant
flowers of all hues and beauty ; where birds with brilli-
ant feathers and sweet chirpings and cooings and
animals of all description, the beautiful antelopes, the
fleet steed, the majestic elephants and the royal lions
are abundant in the forests ; all these captivated the
sensitive minds of the Indians as much as the gazelie-
eyed damsels, with their ruddy cheeks and lips, the
flowing raven hair, and healthy physique of emphatic
outlines of figure.
Thecbarac- /Q0 the other hand, the Indian mind is subtle, deep,
Indian tem- logical to the extreme, imaginative and analytic.\ The
men. jn(jjan m\n^ has as much appeal to passion and
emotion, desire for enjoying the world at its best as for
iNTfeODtJCTION Ixvii
making provision for future post-mortem welfare which
is as real to it as the world here on earth. At the
same time, the Indian mind takes infinite delight in
carrying on logical thoughts to their consistent conclu-
sions in analysing, classifying, naming and arranging
the data in any sphere of experience. Again, the
climatic conditions in which the Aryans in India
came to live were such that their very existence in life
often depended upon favourable showers which alone
could render their corn-fields fertile. They had thus to
depend upon fate and Providence as the fundamental
datum for their well-being. Yet they were fully con-
scious and alive to the efficiency of human will and action
Human beings are not mere playthings in the hands o
Nature. (The Indians in the history of their civilisation
understood the value of human life and human existence
as the end and purpose of the whole of natural
existence. \ They therefore somehow believed that fate
or destiny, howsoever unknown and unknowable may
be its nature, can in reality be influenced and modified
by our actions. Herein they fell back on faith which
was an indispensable postulate for proper action. This
world is for our enjoyment and so we have the
world beyond the present, after death, which must be
for our happy existence and it is somehow given to
us that whatever may be the obstacles in the way of
destiny or fate or in the way of the vagaries of natural
phenomena, it lies in our power, which is itself a faith,
that we can modify its nature and method of working
in our favour. Early in the history of human civilisation
they discovered the existence of a supreme power which
not only controlled the phenomena of the external world
but also all the biological phenomena of life, the func-
tions of our cognitive and conative senses. They began
to search for the secret of this power in the external
Ixviii
The genius
and tem-
perament of
the race
shows itself
in the litera-
ture.
world and being disappointed therein, turned inwardly
to their own minds and discovered that the secret of
.this great power that ruled the life, the universe and
the man, was nothing but the self. Thus, side by
side with the development of the magical literature
which elaborated the sacrificial doctrine that sought
the source of all power outside man in his ritual
dealings with the external world, we have the secret
instructions of the Upanisads which reveal to us
the ultimate philosophy and secret of human life and
its place in Nature.
Literature is but a mode of the self-expression of the*
inner man. The external man is visible, the internal
man is invisible. We can look at the articles of civilisa-
tion, the house, the furniture, the dress, the ordinary
marks of refinement or rusticity, energy or constraint,
customs and manners, intelligence, inventiveness and
coolness, but all these are but different roads, the visible
avenues that lead us to the invisible internal man as
these are but his ways of expression. The internal man
is but an organic unity of emotive and conative impulses
which unroll themselves in accordance with the influ-
ences, physical and social, in which the person has to
evolve. The gifts of a particular race are its own.
The peculiarities of the Greek imagination that gave us
the twin sister of the Antigone of Sophocles and the
goddesses of Phidias are the peculiar expressions of the
Greek mind. As there are differences in anatomical
structure between the various species of animal and plant
lives, so there are essential anatomical peculiarities in
the structure of the different racial minds. If we take
the life of a man like Cromwell as depicted by Carlyle
, we may discover a secret organic unity within him and
an inner soul which would explain all his springs of
action. We find how a soul is working with the
IxiX
troubling reverses of a melancholic imagination but with
a tendency and temperament and instinct which is
English to its very core, unintelligible to those who
have not studied the peculiar English, climate and
still more the peculiarities of the genius of the English
race. In and through his letters and mutilated speeches
one may have the panorama of pictures that led
him from his farm and team to the general's tent
and the Protector's throne ; all through the changes
and vicfssitudes of life, in his freaks of conscience
and political conclusions, the entire machinery of
bis/ mind becomes directly visible ; and all through
his individuality we mark the peculiarities of the
insulated Englishman. In understanding the peculiar
transformation of the English life in the middle ages
we can perceive how from under the meaningless
theological discussions and monotonous sermons, how
from underneath the beating of living hearts, the con-
vulsions and apathies of monastic life, the unpredicted
genius of English life re-asserts itself in wavy turmoils
and how the inroads of surrounding worldliness and its
struggles with the monastic ideal, the true appreciation
of civic life in its exactness, balance and strength,
reveals itself, and how the iron determination of the
race shows itself through its constant struggle with
the neighbouring states. How this English genius is
well-contrasted with that of France, cultured and re-
fined with her drawing-room manners and untiring
analysis of character and actions, her keen irony and
ready wit, her finesse so practised in. the discrimination
of shades of thought, her turbulent and uncontrollable
emotions, can be judged by any one who would care to
study the representative literature of the two countries.
The idea of a supernatural world, of God and His
relation to man is indeed common to most civilised
1XX INTRODUCTION
human races, but it is the peculiar mode and appre*
hension distinctly unique in itself that has in one case
resulted in the architecture of the churches being thrown
down the old status, destruction of pictures and
ornaments, curtailment of ceremonies, shutting up of
worshippers in high pews and the like and in the other
case in the erection of temple-structures, installation of
images, abolition of windows, darkening of the inner
chamber, and at the same time in the provision for
individual worship for every person according to his
needs and also in the provision for conceiving God
as formless, graspable only in thought and devo-
tion and purity of character. While truth is regarded
as one in the European countries, the Indians have
always regarded the reality of grades and aspects of
truth. It is for this reason that evolution in Europe
has always taken place by destroying or modifying the
old, ushering in the new with a total disregard of the
old except in so far as its elements lay hidden in
the structure of the new. Indian genius, however, felt
no contradiction between the old and the new. The
development of Indian thought therefore is the ushering
in of the new without the annulment of the old. While
the development of the Upanisadic monism may ,on
one hand be regarded as the annulment of the pluralism
of Vedic sacrifices and rituals yet the latter persisted
side by side with the former through centuries. The
Indian always found such relations between the old and
the new that it regarded every aspect of the evolution
as true with reference to human history and the history
of truth in evolution. The European who does not
understand this peculiarity of the Indian genius, must
necessarily fail to have a proper perspective of the evolu-
tion and development of Indian thought. The Indians
do not feel any contradiction in taking to Vedic forms
INTRODUCTION
Ixxi
of rituals at the time of marriage and have the images
of Siva, Visnu and Sakti installed in his family temples
and at the same time regard the Brahman as the ulti-
mate truth as formless, causeless and yet the cause of all.
Many European scholars have discussed the ques-
tion of the secular or religious origin of dancing and
dramatic plays. They have failed to notice that the
origin is both religious and secular and in the same
performance even now both religious and secular value
is attached. The Vaisnava lyrics are tested from a
literary point of view as excellent poems of love and at
the same time they are enjoyed with deep religious
fervour developing into religious frenzy and unconscious
states of emotional depth.
When the Aryan settlers entered India in successive
hordes and found themselves amongst the aborigines of
India, the most important concern with them was the
maintenance of the integrity of their race and culture.
They were, however, somewhat humane in their tem-
perament and could not think of destroying absolutely
those of the aborigines who submitted to them against
the hostile ones, the Raksasas and the Asuras. They
carried on an interminable war against the hostile ones
until at least most of them were destroyed. It is not
impossible that the civilization of the people of the Indus
Valley which is almost universally admitted as being
pre-Vedic was so destroyed. At the same time it would
be unwise to think that even these hostile people had
not infiltrated some of their customs and religious
beliefs and other elements of their civilisation. The
Siva cult and the Yoga cult may be pointed out as
specific instances of such infiltration. A close analysis
and comparison of the elements of earliest Vedic civili-
sation may in course of time reveal many more instances
of mutual contact and indebtedness,
Religious
and secular
ideas wedde
together.
Contact
with alien
races.
INTRODUCTION
The idea But along with the successful war and occupation of
of dnarma as to .
social integ- the country and gradual extension of the civilisation
towards the East along the course of the Ganges and to-
wards the South beyond the Vindhyas, unobstructed at
the time by any foreign invasions, the principal problem
before these Aryans was to solve the question of social
synthesis consistent with absolute social integrity.
They felt that without such a social integrity their
unity and fraternity would be lost and their influence
and existence would be destroyed under the strange
influence of an alien land. They therefore fell back for
the preservation of their old customs and manners to
the religious practices as preserved in the oral traditions
of the Vedas and the subsequent Vedic literature as it
developed gradually in course of time. Their chief
motive urge was social preservation and social continu-
ity and maintenance of its integrity and solidarity,
which the term ' dharma ' etymologically means.
Such a problem need not arise in any appreciable manner
in the case of those Aryans who had migrated to the
Western countries for where -the Aryans were in large
multitude they destroyed the original aborigines and
the inter-marriage between the various hordes of Aryans
did not or could not lead to any disruption of their
social integrity as Aryans. In Iran the Aryans preserved
their integrity and thus their civilization till the advent
of the Moslems and when they could not withstand the
impact of Islamic invasion they largely lost their
integrity and their civilisation merged with the
civilisation of the Semitic people. But even there
the best literature and philosophy of the Islamic
world had been produced by the Persian converts.
No other nation has been known to produce litera-
ture and philosophy of a standard higher than that of
the Aryans,
INTRODUCTION
Ixxiii
As the preservation of the Vedic culture was thus
regarded upon as the only means of social preservation
and the maintenance of social integrity, and was thus
looked upon as dharma, the idea of dharma as confor-
mity to old customs and manners of Vedic times
became the main spring not only of the evolution of the
legal literature, the Purdnas and the Dharma-dastras,
but it became ingrained in the society as the fundamen-
tal and indispensable structure and scheme of all its
cultural products. Nothing could be allowed to prevail
that would come into conflict with the dharma.
This dharma again was based upon a literature and
pre-eminently upon a poetic literature, viz., the Vedas.
Literature thus in one sense as a traditional store-
house of past customs and manners, was the source of
dharma and it was dharma also that was in some
sense at least the dominant influence or guide in the
production and development of later literature. Practices
of a secular nature that prevailed in old Vedic times
became associated on the one hand with dharma and on
the other they continued to have a development on
secular lines such as would not be inconsistent with the
practice of dharma.
I shall give one instance. In the Rgveda I. 92.4
there is a passage which describes the dancing of a
courtesan (nrtu) — adhi pe$amsi vapate nrtur-iva-pornute
vaksa ticchreva varjaham. Sayana in commenting on the
verse explains it as follows : — nrtur-iva nartayantlyosid-
iva pe&arrisi, rupa-namaitat sarvair-darfaniyani rupani
usa adhivapate svatmani adhikam dhdrayati vaksah
svaklyam urahpradefam pornute anacchaditam karoti —
i.e., the Usas is like a dancing girl who carefully clothes
herself in her best raiments but keeps her bosom
uncovered in order to attract the eyes of all. Now,
a terracotta figure of a dancing girl with beautiful and
J— 1843B
The con-
cept of
dharma
depends on
the Vedas.
Continuity
of even the
semi-secular
practices
through the
ages.
Ixxiv
INTRODUCTION
Dharma,
the guiding
principle of
Hindu cul-
ture.
Secular
utlook and
be doctrine
f trivarga.
sparkling raiments over all her body but with bare bosoms
has been discovered in the Maurya level of excavation
near the site of the present Patna College. (See
A. Banerjee-Sastri's article, I. H. Q., 1933, p. 155.)
Now, we find that exactly the same kind of dancing girl
that used to dance before the audience in Vedic times
appears in the same kind of dress keeping her bosoms
bare and her body clothed in raiments before the
audience in Maurya times. The continuity of the
practice of the same kind of dancing with same kind of
clothes for more than thousand years, cannot but appear
to us surprising. Exactly the same sort of dancing of
the Devadasis may even now be noticed in many of the
temples of the South.
We thus notice a strange continuity of secular
practices and a strange association of these with reli-
gious practices which has led many scholars to
conceive the development of Indian drama from religious
sources. The point, however, that we wish to lay stress
upon here, is that the motive ot dharma being essen-
tially of the nature of social preservation and maintenance
of social solidarity, had never been lost sight of in the
development of Indian literature. The importance of
this would be realised when we consider that even
to-day the indispensable definition of being a Hindu
consists in his participation in and loyalty to the Vedic
practices.
If we closely review the tendencies of the Vedic
culture', we find that in addition to the adherence to
certain Vedic customs and manners and the doctriues
of sacrifices, the Vedic people were anxious like other
Aryan people to provide for wealth and enjoyment in
this life &nd for making provision for happiness here-
after. As a matter of fact, most of their prayers are
for mundane advantages, prosperity and happiness.
INTRODUCTION 1XXV
Even a cursory reading of the Atharva Veda will show
that these Vedic people would offer prayers even for the
meanest advantage and pleasure of vulgar types. The
idea of dharma was later on supplemented with high
moral ideals, self-control, control of passions and the
like? culminating in the desire for liberation, but the
idea of sense-enjoyment and the accumulation of articles
of prosperity, i.e., kama and artha, remained all through
the centuries more or less unaffected. The Hindu
culture thus has been motivated principally by four
impulses, the impulse of dharma, artha, kama and
moksa. Of these the moksa literature consists primarily
of the Upani§ads, the works of the different philosophi-
cal systems, the religio-philosopbical literature of the
Tantras and the like. The impulse of dharma is to be
found in the sacrificial literature and its accessories, the
Vedahgas. The motive of artha forms the content of the
Vartta literature which is now mostly extinct. The
motive of kama in its special application to sexology
has led to the development of a fairly large literature
on the Kama-tastra. The dharma, artha and kama
together are called the trivarga. The literature of
Political Science, the Kavya and the like are supposed
to have been motivated by the three fundamental
emotive tendencies, dharma, artha and kama. Of these
the huge stotra literature is motivated by the impulse of
dharma while the other forms of literature, viz., Epic
Kavyas, Lyric Kavyas, the Dramas, have been moti-
vated by three principles, dharma, artha and kama and
so also is the katha literature and the niti literature.
We have said above that the genius of the Indian
mind is at once extremely analytic and imaginative.
For this reason we have a fairly large literature of
Natya-tastra and Alamkara-£astra, which not only ana-
lyses in Jdetail the various elements that constitute the
1XXVI INTRODUCTION
complex act of dancing, acting and music, but which
has also tried to review in detail the structure and
technique of the Drama as well as the principles under-
lying the display of sentiments through the histrionic
art as well as poetry in general.
Bharata in describing natya has characterised it
as productive of dharma and fame, as conducive to long
life and increasing the understanding and as instructive
to people in general. It is supposed to be the conjoint
result of all knowledge, wisdom, art and craft. Its
purpose is to produce a sort of imitation of human events
and character. It produces satisfaction and rest for the
suffering, the fatigued, the wretched and it consoles
those that are troubled by grief. l Dramatic art is thus
regarded by Bharata, the author of the earliest work
on the science of dramaturgy now available, as the art
of reproduction by imitation. Consistently with it,
Dhananjaya has defined natya as the reproduction of a
situation and as the different characters are given visible
form (rupa) in the person of the actors, a drama is called
a rupaha. Among the commentators of Bharata there
are learned discussions regarding the sense in which a
dramatic performance may be regarded as a reproduction
in the sense of imitation and Abhinavagupta, the most
penetrating and distinguished critic of art, strongly
objects to the idea of imitation. He holds that through
music, dancing, acting and the dress, dyeing, and the
stage environment, the dramatic performance is entirely
1 nana-bhavopasampannaip nana-vasthanta<ratmakam \
hka-vrttdnukaranaw na}yametanmaya kftam II
dutykhartanam $ramartanarp $okartanarp tapasvinam \
viAranti-jananam kale natyametad bhavifyati II
dharmyatp yatasyamayuqyarp hitarp buddhi-vivatdhanam \
loko-padeta-jananarp natyametad bhavijyati II
no taj*jfianarp na tac-chilpaip na sa vidya na sa kala \
n&sau yogo na tat karma n&tye'smin yanna drSyate II
— Bharata's Natyatastra.
INTRODUCTION IxXVJl
a new art for the production of aesthetic joy and it is
not imitation in any ordinary sense of the term.
Abhinavagupta says that imitation of other's move-
ments would produce the ludicrous and imitation of
other's feelings and emotions is impossible. The
influence of music, the sight of the other actors and the
stage environment produce in the actor an influence by
which he forgets his spatio-temporal, actual or local
personality and thus transfigures himself into his
dramatic personality and a new world consistent with
the spirit of the dramatic situation appears in him and
his performance produces in a similar manner a new
influence, and a new type of communication emerges out
of him and enlivens the mind of the audience. But we dramatic
shall not enter here into any details of the nature of arfc<
art-communication. We are only interested to point
out that dramatic performance becomes an art when
recitation in the form of dialogues associated with
suitable gestures, postures, movement, dancing, dress
and music, succeeds in giving expressions to sentiments
and passions so as to rouse similar sentiments in the
minds of the audience. Thus it becomes a dramatic
art. Thus Natyadarpana says : natakamiti natayati
vicitram ranjanat prave£ena sabhyanam hrdayam narta-
yati iti natakam.1 In this sense a dramatic perform-
ance should be distinguished from mere recitation
which is not so effective. We have elsewhere in the
editorial notes tried to show the manner in which the
dramatic performance evolved through a combination of
recitation, dancing and acting and the fact that there
were at least in the 2nd century B.C. and in the time
of the Mauryyas, schools and teachers for the training
of the dramatic art.
1 yadyapi kathadayo'pi srotfhfdayatn natayanti tathapiahk opayadinavp
vaicitryahetunamabhavdt na tathd ratlfakatvam iti na te nfyakam I
Ixxviii
INTRODUCTION
Keligious
value of
dramatic
perform-
ances.
The epi-
sode of King
Kula-
sekhara,
We have said above that the kacyas and the natya
contributed to dharma, artha and kama and Bharata's
specification of the object of dramatic performance also
confirms the view. Not only is natya called a Veda for
universal instruction and the author of the Natya£astra
called a muni (saint) but dramatic performances were
generally held in times of religious festivities and when
they consisted in the reproduction of the great characters
of the Rdmayana and the Mahabharata, they had not
only an educative value in rousing noble passions but
they were regarded also as productive of merit, both for
those who performed them and for those who listened to
and witnessed them. Even to-day the Kamacarita is
played in a peculiar manner in the United Provinces in
India, where the players as well as the audience are
surcharged with a religious emotion. Again, when a
kathaka or a reciter would recite, say, the episode of
the marriage of Sita, religiously-minded persons would
have the impression in their minds that the marriage of
Sita was actually taking place before them and those
who can afford to do it, would willingly offer golden
ornaments and jewels as articles of dowry for Sita,
which of course, are received by the Brahmin reciting
as his fees. Even those who cannot afford to pay
much would offer whatever they can, fruits and flowers,
coins, grains, etc., on such an occasion. Here, again,
we must note the imaginative character of the Indians,
who can very easily lose their personality when they
listen to the imaginary description of deeds that are
dear to their hearts. I do not know if any other people
in the world have such imaginary susceptibilities.
In the Prapannamrta (Chap. 86) by Anantacarya
there is a curious episode of King Kula^ekhara who was
a Tamil king living in the 12th century, who was very
fond of listening to the recitation of the Ramayana.
INTRODUCTION
Ixxix
When he listened to a verse to 'the effect that Kama was
alone to meet the fourteen thousand demons, he became
so much excited with the affair that he immediately
armed himself from head to foot and was on the point of
marching with all his arrny to meet Havana as an ally
of Rama.1 Such imaginative predilection of the Indian
people could easily be utilised by the poets by dealing
with characters of the Rdmdyana and the Mahabharata
and the Puranas as a means of rousing the religious
and moral interest of the audience and thereby contri-
buting to dharma. We know that the Rdmdyana,
which is definitely called a Mvya and the Mahabharata 9
which is called an itihdsa, are regarded as invested
with the holiness of the Vedas. Thus, there was an
easy bridge between what may be called dharma and
what may be called plain literature. We can also
assume that the Indian people in general were as a rule
religi'ously-minded and cared for that type of literature
which initiated them to religious principles and
strengthened their faith •in a pleasurable manner
through amusements. This may be a very important
reason why most of the plots of Indian dramas and
kdvyas were taken from the Rdmdyana, the Maha-
bharata and the Puranas. There are indeed some plots
derived either directly or indirectly from Gunadhya or
the floating materials used by him or from similar other
sources. In other cases, the lives of great kings or
saints also form the subject-matter of the kdvyas and
the dramas and in a few cases historical events have
tarn imam Slokam, bhaktiman kulatekharah |
caturdata-sahasrdni raksasam bhlma-kannanam \
ekatca rdmo dharmdtmd katharfl'yuddharp, bhaviqyati \
asahisnustato'dharmayuddharp 6ighram> skhalad-gatih \
dhanurvanaip samdddya khajgarii carma ca viryyavan
caturangabalopeto janasthdnam- kftatvarah I
pratasthe tatk$ane tasya saMyarthavp, haripriyah II
Religious
tempera-
ment of the
people often
explains the
choice of
plots.
Ixxx
INTRODUCTION
Idealistic
or religious
motives
sometimes
inspired the
poets in
framing the
plots.
also been made the subject-matter of literature. Side
by side with these historical kdvyas we have many
prafasti-kavyas in inscriptions which are of excellent
poetic merit, such as, the pratastis by Kavigvara
Rama (700-800 A.D.) and the LalitaSuradeva of the
9th century A.D. , &c.
Not only in the choice of subjects but also in the
framing of the plots, poets were sometimes guided by
idealistic motives. Thus Kalidasa described the physical
beauty of Parvati to its perfection in the Kumar a-
sambhava, but in the matter of the fruition of her love
for a great yogin like Siva, the fragile physical beauty
was not deemed enough. She must go through the
hardest penance in order that she may make her love
fruitful. It is only the spiritual glory and spiritual attain-
ment of spiritual beauty, beauty attained by self-control
and the attainment of moral height that can become
permanent and eternal.1 In the case of the love of
Sakuntala, who in the intensity of her love had forgotten
her duties in the hermitage, she had to suffer cruel
rebuff and practical banishment in sorrow. The lusty
love of tTrva^I was punished by her being turned into a
creeper. Thus, the poet Kalidasa, when describing the
passion of love, is always careful to demonstrate that
hama should not in its intensity transgress the
dharma. But the same poet was not in the least
perturbed in giving us glowing experiences of conjugal
satisfaction that took place between Siva and Parvati, or
conjugal yearning in the case of the Yaksa for his
1 iye$a sd kartumabandhya-rupatam samddhimdsthdya tapobhir-
dtmanah \
avdpyate vd kathamanyathadvayvm tathdvidham prema patisca tddr-
tah\\
—Kumarasambhava9 Canto V, 2.
INTRODUCTION
Ixxxi
The ideal
beloved spouse. Kama in itself is not undesirable or
bad, but when it transgresses dharma it becomes
wicked. The kama of King Agnivarna in Raghu-
vaniSa led to his destruction. It is for this reason
that the Sanskrit poets of India instead of por-
traying mere characters or giving expression to ardent
love or other sentiments as such, or devising their
plots at random from their everyday sphere of ex-
periences, had to adopt a particular scheme, a frame-
work of types, within which limitations they had to
give vent to their poetic effusions. The scheme or
the frame should be such that the .fundamental principle
that dharma, artha and kama should not transgress ° marga'
one another leading to disastrous results, may
be observed. But here again, with the exception
of Bhasa, most of the writers had conformed to the
poetic convention that no drama should end with
disastrous consequences. Here again, a drama as an
work of art was regarded as a whole, as a cycle com-
plete in itself. A drama ending with disastrous
consequences would be a mutilated piece from the
world of our experience — it would merely mean that
the cycle has not been completed, or that it is only
a partial view and not the whole. Inspite of the
charge of pessimism often laid at the door of Indian
thought by the Westerners, it should be noted that
the Indians who admit, sorrow as a partial aspect of
things would regard it as negative in the conception
of the whole or totality. A drama in its totality must
aim at some realisation. It is for this reason that the
fully developed drama, viz., a nataka, should have in it
five critical situations called the mukha, pratimukha,
Ijarbha, vimarta and nirvahana. Thus in the drama
Ratnavali, the love of Sagarika at seeing the king
Udayana at first sight, introduces the main theme
Drama —
an epitome
of life.
The five
critical
situations.
INTRODUCTION
of the drama which would culminate in the end in
the happy union of tldayana with Sagarika. This
is the seed, as it were, which would fructify in
the whole drama. This seed of first love was some-
what obscured by the artifice of the king and other
events that followed, but its shoot is again manifested
when in Act II through the arrangement of Susangata
king Udayana and Sagarika met each other. This is
called the pratimukha-sandhi. The garbha-sandhi is
that in which there are obstructive events which lead
the reader to doubt whether the hopes raised would be
fulfilled or not. Thus, when in Sakuntala we have
the curse of Durvasa and later on, the repulsion of
Sakuntala by the king in the Court, and her dis-
appearance, we have the garbha-sandhi. Later on,
when at the sight of the ring the king is reminded of
Sakuntala, we have the vimarta-sandhi, or inspite of
the obstruction and doubt, the reader is again
encouraged to hope and is partially satisfied with regard
to the expected union. The last nirvahana-sandhi is
that in which the king Dusyanta becomes again united
with Sakuntala in Act VII. Thus the five critical
situations constitute a unity, an epitome of our life as
a whole. Life has its crises, its difficulties and
disappointments, but we have always to be hopeful
regarding the final fulfilment. The drama is thus the
reflection of life as a whole from the Indian point of
view and contains its own philosophy. The critics,
however, recommend further divisions of each of the
critical stages into which we need not enter. What
is important to note here is the general review of
life.
of Drama has several forms, viz., nataka, prakarana?
nfitifefl, prakarani, vyayoga, samavakftra, bhclna,
dttna, utsr§tikahka, lhamrga, vlthi and prahasana. The
INTRODUCTION Ixxxiii
ptakarana deals with the plot consisting of the
characters of ordinary people, such as the minister,
Brahmin, merchant and the like and the plot generally
is the poet's own invention, or taken from historical
episodes. Thus Malatlmadhava is a prakarana. The
heroine may either be a wife or a courtesan. In Mrccha-
katika we have a courtesan as a heroine and in Malatl-
madhava a wife. The other characters belong also
to the sphere of common people. Among the women
characters we have the procuresses and other common
women. In a prakarana there are generally troublous
events and the principal hero is of a patient and
peaceful temperament (dhiratanta) . The natika is
a mixture of nataka and prakarana. The principal
sentiment is generally love and the hero is generally
of a soft and amorous temperament. It generally
deals with the characters of kings. The hero king
is always afraid of the queen in carrying on his amor-
ous adventures. There are more heroines than heroes.
It may be of one, two, three or four Acts. A bhana
portrays the character of a knave or rogue (dhurta),
wherein only one person acts in imaginary dialogues,
i.e., behaving as if the actor was responding to the
question or speech of another and it consists only of
one Act and it may include dancing as v^ll. Though
there is but only one actor, he carries on dialogues
with imaginary persons not present on the stage. It
may also include singing. Sometimes one may sit and
recite with gestures. It generally portrays the amorous
sentiment and sometimes heroism, The prahasana
consists in portraying the sentiment of the ludicrous
generally at the expense of the religious sects ; the
actors and actresses are generally courtesans and their
associates and the members of the sects at whose
expense the fun is being enjoyed. It generally consists
INTRODUCTION
of one Act. A dima portrays the behaviours and
characters of ghosts and ghostly beings, Gandharvas,
Yak§as and Baksasas. It generally portrays the senti-
ment of anger and that of the loathsome and disgusting
and treats of dreadful things like the eclipse, the
thunder and the comet. It generally consists of four
Acts and has four critical situations. As examples of
this, one may refer to the Tripuradaha, Vrtroddharana
and Tdrakoddharana . A vyayoga has for its hero either
gods or kings and has but few actors, — three, four or
five, but not exceeding ten. The two critical situa-
tions, garbha and vimar$a are absent. It describes
generally deeds of violence and fighting, but the
fighting is not for the sake of any woman. It generally
deals with the happenings of one particular day. A
samavakara deals with legendary episodes of the con-
flict between the gods and demons. It generally deals
with the sentiment of heroism and generally consists
of three Acts of three different times. It portrays siege
of cities or battles or stormy destructions or destructions
through fire. The Samudramanthana by Vatsaraja is
a good illustration of samavakara. A mthi consists
of one Act, like the Vakulavithi. It generally portrays
the sentiment of love and is sometimes accompanied
with dancing and amorous gestures and generally there
is one or two actors. The utsrstikdhka deals with
a known legend or a fairy tale and portrays cruel deeds
and battles. Many young women are introduced as
weeping and sorrowing. Though full' of dreadful
events, it would end in peace. Generally it contains
three Acts. Actual killing should not be shown on the
stage though sometimes violation of this rule is seen,
as in the utsrstikanka called the Nagananda, where
Jimiitavahana dies on the stage. An lhamrga portrays
fighting for the sake of women and the hero may be
INTRODUCTION ixxxv
godly or human and there may be great fights for the
possession of heavenly nymphs. There are generally
four Acts and the plot is derived from well-known stories
modified by the dramatist.
A review of these various forms of dramatic per-
formance sheds some new light upon the problem of the
evolution of the drama. Of these various forms of the
drama it is only the ndtaka and the prakarana that
may be regarded as full-fledged dramas. Of these two,
again, the ndtaka should be based upon a well-known
story and the hero, who is generally a king, should be
possessed of all kingly qualities. Though the story should
be derived only from legends, yet whatever may be im-
proper or undesirable should be left out. There should
be many characters in it and there should be the
five sandhis and a proper balance between the various
Acts. The sentiment to be portrayed should be either
heroic or amorous and nothing that may be shocking,
dreadful or shameful should be shown on the stage.
It should consist of at least five Acts and it should not
have more than ten Acts and each Act should contain
the event of one day or half a day. The Vikramorvasl
is a five-Act drama, the Rdmdbhyudayaa, six-Act drama,
the Sakuntala a seven-Act drama, the Nalavikrama an
eight- Act drama, the Deviparinaya a nine-Act drama and
the Bdlardmdyana a ten-Act drama. The ndtaka form
of drama is regarded as the best and it is supposed to
contribute todfearma, artfeaand kdma inconsistency with
each other.1 The prakarana resembles the ndtaka, only
ato hi nfyakasya'sya pr&thamyarp parikalpitam I
wafj/o-fledan* vidhayadavwin&ha pit&mahalj, I
dharmadi-sadhanavp natyarp, sarva-duhkhd-panodanam I
dsevadhvam tadrsayas tasyotthanam iu nafakam I
divya-manufa-saipyogo yatrdhkairavidfyakaih II
BhAvapraltaiana of Sarsdatanaya VIII, pp. 287.238.
ixxxv i
INTRODUCTION
Character-
istics of
some other
forms of the
drama.
the plot here may be either legendary or concocted by
the poet, It also contributes to dharma, artha and
kama, but the characters are not taken from the higher
sphere. There may be courtesans here or legally
married wives or damsels in the state of courtship
but they are all taken from the bourgeois, such as in
the Mrcchakatika or the Malatimadhava. The natika
like the Ratnavall or the Priyadarsika also deals with
characters of the higher sphere and they are generally
of the amorous type. There is not in it any attempt
to contribute to dharma, artha and kama in mutual
consistency. We thus find that it has not the same high
purpose as the nataka or the prakarana. This
accounts for the fact that natakas have been more popu-
lar and we have an immensely larger number of natakas
than any other form of the drama. This is consistent
with the ideal of the realisation of trivarga, i.e.,
dharma, artha and kama, in dramatic performance. It
also accounts for the fact that we have so few of the
prahasana and the bhana, which are farces and parodies
from common life. There may have been the earlier
forms of popular play which gradually dwindled away
into forgetfulness with the pronounced and pointed
development of the ideal of trivarga among people in
general, and we perceive that as time advanced the ideal
of dharma as. a purpose of drama was more and more
definitely demanded. When with the Mahomedan
occupation the religious practices ceased to be encourag-
ed by kings, people wanted to be reminded of the old
ideals of holy characters in dramatic plays and this
explains the fact why after the 12th or the 13th century
we have such a superabundance of Epic kavyas and
dramas with religious themes.
Taken at random, of about 68 dramatic pieces after
the 12th century A.D., we find that the plot of about
INTRODUCTION
Ixxxvii
41 of them were taken from the religious legends and
only 27 from the secular legends, mostly built upon the
story available from Gunacjhaya's source. Of these 41
dramatic pieces drawn from the religious legends, 27
are natakas, one is a prakarana, 3 are vyayogas, 2
dimas, one Ihdmrga, 4 utsrstikahkas, 2 samavakaras.
Of the 27 dramatic pieces from secular sources, 6 are
natakas, 11 prakaranas, 3 prahasanas, 2 vtthis, 4
natikas and one lhamrga. We thus see that the natakas
by far exceeded all other forms of dramatic compositions
and most of them ^were taken from religious legends.
All vyayogas (three), dimas (two), utsrstikahkas (four)
and samavakaras (two) are religious. There is one
secular lhamrga and one religious. The bhana and the
prahasana cannot by nature be religious and we have
only 4 prahasanas including the Hasyacudamani, and
there is one bhana called the Karpuracarita. Among
those derived from secular legends, there are some
natakas , prakaranas, two vtthis and 4 natikas. The
dima, we have already seen, deals with episodes of
supernatural beings like the ghosts and goblins. The
vyayoga and the samavakdra deal generally with dreadful
events, battles between the demons and the gods and
it is probable that they existed as the earlier forms
of dramatic representations portraying the defeats of the
asuras and the aboriginal races in their conflict with
the Aryans. The bhana and the prahasana were
generally comic representations from popular life of a
lower status and they displayed no moralising tendency.
These were the first to disappear. Those dramatic
forms of representation like the vyayoga, dima and
samavakara which represented military valour, anger
or irascibility of temper, could not also stand, as with
the distance of time actual episodes. of battles, etc.,
which had at one time agitated the public mind and
Dominance
of religions
motive ID
the dramatic
literature.
Characteris-
tics of differ-
ent types of
the drama.
Ixxxviii
INTRODUCTION
The subjects
of dramas
and Epics
are mostly
taken from
religious
sources.
represented the mock triumph of the Aryan people
over their neighbours, ceased to interest the public
mind. The fact that Bbasa, whose works are the
earliest representatives of our dramatic literature now
available, gives equal importance to these as to the
natakas indicates the possibility of their existence in
larger numbers in earlier times which are now lost. It
is remarkable to note that Bhasa also draws upon
religious legends in a large measure. Of the two
fragmentary dramas of A^vaghosa, one is the Sariputra-
prakarana and the other is a religious allegory like the
Prabodha-candrodaya of later times, and the religious
motive is apparent in both of them.
In the drama of later times, i.e., from the 12th to
the 18th century, taking a review of about 33 dramas,
we find that almost all of them are based on either the
Rama or the Krsna legend. Hardly any drama had
been written during this period which may be said to
have been based upon the story-material of Gunacjhya
which in the later centuries before Christ and through-
out many centuries after the Christian era supplied
materials to so many dramas. The same thing may be
said with more emphasis regarding the Epic kavyas.
With the exception of the Carita-kavyas or biographical
epics there have hardly been any Epic kavyas through-
out the centuries which have not been based on the reli-
gious legends. Valmiki's Ramayana, the Mahabharata
and the Kj^na legends from the Puranas had stood as
inexhaustible stores from which poets could either
borrow or adapt legends with modifications for their
kavya. The Prafasti kavyas were all inspired with
feelings of loyalty to great kings or patrons and such
loyalty could be compared only to devotion to God.
Thus, both in the dramas and in the kavyas the scope of
the poet's treatment was limited by the considerations
INTRODUCTION
Ixxxix
of trivarga-siddhi. The Sanskrit poets were as a rule
very fond of delineating the amorous sentiment or the
sentiment of love. But they could give play to the
portrayal of their erotic predilections only in a limited
manner in the kavyas and the dramas so far as is con-
sistent with normal, social and conjugal rules of life ;
but in this sphere the elaborate description of feminine
beauty and post-nuptial amorous enchantments gave the
poets sufficient scope to indulge in their tendency to
give expression to passions and longings. Long sepa-
rations were also good situations for portraying amorous
longings.
But whether in literature or not, the bodily side of
the passion or the structural conditions of feminine
beauty have found a place of importance and except in
the works of a few artists or poets, the representations
of the physical side seem to our taste to be rather crude.
It does not, of course, prove that the passion was
burning more in the blood of the Hindus than in the
blood of other races. It probably simply means that
kama being one of the constituents of trivarga, voluptu-
ousness and sensuality and appreciation of feminine
beauty as sanctioned by dharma was quite innocent and
had nothing to be abashed of. The passion of kama,
as has been mentioned above, had two spheres, one that
was enjoined by dharma where non-indulgence of the
passions would be a punishable sin, and the other when
it was not enjoined by dharma but when such indul-
gence did not transgress the limits of dharma. So the
poets also portrayed passionate love in the latter sphere
and these portrayals in the satakas and elsewhere form
some of the best specimens of Sanskrit amorous poetry.
It has been said above that the drama or Epic kQvya
was looked upon in this country not as a portrayal of
any scene of life or any characters that came within the
The place of
love as a
member of
the trivarga
in literature.
T 1Q4QT)
XC INTRODUCTION
experience of the poet but that they were generally
regarded as giving an epitome of complete life either of
the great religious heroes or of kings famous in
traditional or legendary accounts. Evem the story of
Gunadhya had a sanctified atmosphere about it on
account of the fact that it was often believed that it was
originally narrated by Lord Siva to Parvatl (hara-
mukhodgirnd). It is on this account that in the great
kavyas where royal life was depicted, wars and battles,
svayanivaras, kingly magnanimity and royal episodes of
love were narrated and in dramas also which were not
professedly of a didactic character, the principal subject-
matter was an episode of love and on some occasions
heroism also.
It is on account of a loyalty ingrained deeply in the
of indUn mental structure of Hindu life that Hindu creations
either in art, literature or philosophy have always
followed the course of creating types, where individual-
ity has always remained shy to express itself in its full
height. Thus, in philosophy also we do not get a free
response of thought moving forward largely untramelled
by conditions, but always leaning towards certain fixed
points which are like the Cartesian co-ordinates deter-
mining its exact situation. Thus, almost every Indian
philosophy should admit the validity of the Vedas, the
doctrine of re-birth or transmigration, the possibility of
salvation and the root-cause of the world as being some
form of ignorance. Within these limits each system of
Indian philosophy develops its own views and predilec-
tions. Each system can criticise the above concepts,
may explain its theory of knowledge and the nature of
the world, a concept of bondage and salvation and the
ways that may be adopted for that. So in art also,
most forms of pictorial or statuary art and even the
architectural art of India would have some message tq
iNtKObtCTlON fcci
communicate and a physical portrayal would rather
sacrifice its faithfulness to nature in the interest of the
message to be communicated rather than be realistic
and devote itself only to the delineation of beauty.
Under these circumstances, an Epic is supposed to
have for its hero some king or kings of the same race.
The story must be taken from a legend. It should
include within it deprecatory remarks about evil deeds
and the edification of the noble, description of natural
scenes, mountains, forests and oceans, morningreveningA
and the seasons.
Every kind of human production, — literature, music,
fine arts, philosophy, science, state-craft, — has for its
direct cause a moral disposition or a combination of ?/ «J *nd
L literature.
moral dispositions which seems somehow internally to
determine these products. The conditions of race,
epoch and environmental conditions and circumstances
bring out to prominence certain moral conditions which
are suited to the production of particular types of archi-
tecture, painting, sculpture, music or poetry. Each has
its special law and it is by virtue of this law, acciden-
tally as it may appear, that development takes place
amidst the diversion of its neighbours, like painting in
Flanders and Holland in the 17th century, poetry in
England in the 16th century, music in Germany in the
18th. At such times in such countries the conditions are
fulfilled for one art rather than for another. There is
a special kind of psychology, a mental perspective
required for the development of each of these arts.
There is a peculiar inner system of impressions and
operations which makes an artist, a believer, a musician,
a painter, a wanderer, or a man of society. Literature
is like living monuments of the outstanding personalities
of different times. Literature is instructive because it
is beautiful. Its utility depends upon its perfection.
It deals with visible and almost tangible sentiments
and the more a book represents the important sentiment
of the people the higher is its place in literature. It is
by representing the mode of being of the whole Nature
of a whole age that a writer can collect round him the
sympathies of an entire age and an entire nation. It is
not mere catechisms or chronicles that can impress
upon us the inner nature of a person or a nation. It is
the inner movement of sentiments and interests, ideals
and emotions made living through artistic expression,
that can hold before us the life of a people.
It is curious to notice that Indian life and manners
continued to present a pattern for decades of centuries.
There was growth and development but more or less on
the same line. It was only after the Mahammadan
invasion and finally with the occupation of the country
by the British that the system of its life and manners
and even the psychology of the people has undergone a
rude change — a change which at the first shock had
stunned the mind of the people with the advent of the
new sciences, new ways of thought, new perspectives
which brought with it the whole history of Western
culture with its massive strength hurled against the
Indian people. During the first 130 years or so the
nerve of the Indian mind was almost paralysed by this
rude shock and during the past 50 years the Indian
mind is again trying to undersfand the value of the
contribution of this culture and has been trying to
become self-conscious and rise above its influence — a
fact which may be well appreciated not only by the
growing political consciousness and demand for freedom
but also from the history of the Bengali literature,
culminating in the literature of Poet Eabindranath in
whose writings we find a clear and concrete method as
to how the Western culture can be synthesised with the
tNTfcODUCilOfc
Indian genius without submitting and drooping down
before the former but rising above it and yet assimila-
ting its best fruits and introducing such changes in our
outlook and perspective as are consonant with our past
and yet capable of assimilating the new for a creative
transfiguration.
The reason of the continuity of Indian culture is Of Indian* 7
largely to be found in the insular character of our civi- cultnre-
lisation and the extreme doggedness and obstinacy
amounting to haughtiness and national pride rising to
the level of religion against the conscious acceptance of
any contribution from any foreigner. This could be
possible largely because of the fact that this national
pride had become identified with our religion. Our
legal literature is called Dharmat&stra or religious litera-
ture. Manners, customs, professions and the like, the
creation of our social classes with their restricted duties,
divisions of life into different stages with their ordained
duties, are not for us mere social adjustments due to
diverse social and environmental causes but it has been
the essence of Hindu religion. The Smrtis or the Indian
legal literature has codified for every member of every
social class the nature of his duties. The law is not
merely for regulating our conduct to our fellow-
beings but for regulating the entire course of our
daily life, eating, drinking and the like from birth
to death. Though at different times people have more
or less deviated from the strict programme laid down
by the Smrtis, yet, on the whole, the social life has
strictly and uniformly followed not only the general
scheme laid by the Smrtis but also most of the
particular details. I have said above that the stringent
grip of the Smrtis became more and more tightened
with the advance of centuries. Thus, for example, the
prescriptions of the medical science aa regards food and
INTRODUCTION
drink as found in the Caraka in the 1st century A.D,,
is found wholly unacceptable in the legal literature of
later times. Restrictions of food and drink and
various other kinds of conduct and practice became
more and more stringent, signifying thereby a
slackening tendency in society.
Marx has said that division of the social classes
has always been the result of conflict between the
capitalists and the working classes and that the
development of social culture, the production of
literature, philosophy, music and the like, is the result
of the change in economic conditions and means of
production. But both these theses seem to lose their
force in the case of India. Here we have the develop-
ment of philosophy, art and literature though there
has practically been no change in the means of
economic production. for more than 2,000 years. The
Brahmins had a position which was even greater than
that of a king, not to speak of a Vaisya capitalist, and
yet there was no theocracy in India like the Papal
domination of the West or like the system of the Caliphs
in Islam. The Brahmins were poor and self-abnegating
persons who generally dedicated their lives to learning
and teaching and to the practice of religious works.
They did not interfere with the rules of kings except when
some of them were appointed ministers but they laid
down a scheme of life and a scheme of conduct which
had to be followed by all persons from the king to the
tanner. It was this enforcement of a universal scheme
of life that often protected the people from misrule and
tyranny on the part of kings. It is no doubt true that
in a few exceptions there had been tyranny and
misrule, but on the whole the kings had to follow a
beneficent scheme for it was the law. It is principally
at the time of the Mauryas that we find many laws
INTRODUCTION
XCV
introduced which were advantageous to the king but
the Mauryas were Sudras. At the time of the Ksatriya
kings we again find the laws of Srnjli revived. The
caste system had already come into force in its
stringency in the 4th century B.C. Thus, Megasthenes
says: "No one is allowed to marry out of his own
caste or to exchange one profession or trade for another
or to follow more than one business/' The existence
of the caste system means the allocation of particular
duties in society to particular castes. The union of
the Ksatriya and the Brahmana, of the king and the
law-giver in the council, was at the basis of the
Hindu Government. There was a joint- family system
very similar to what they had in Rome, but every
individual member bad a locus standi in the eye of the
law and the father of the family was like the trustee
of the family property. The king and the Brahmin
were the trustees of society, the king by protecting and
enforcing the laws of dharma and the Brahmin by
promulgating them. The Brahmins, as it were, were
the legislators, and the kings, the executives and the
former were, so far as the legislation went, independent
of the latter. This legislation, however, referred not
only to ordinary juridical conduct but to all kinds of
daily duties and conduct as well. But when the laws
were codified, though the Brahmin as a purohita or
priest retained his position of high honour and respect
from the king, he was no longer a constituent of the
Government. Thus, the seven ahgas constituting the
state (svamya-matya-suhrt-kofa-rdstra'durga-baldni ca,
i.e., king, councillor, allies, treasury, people and
territory, fortresses and army), did not include
Brahmins as a constituent. Gradually the importance
of the king's office gained in strength as subserving the
primary needs and interests of the people and the
Constitu-
tion a Lid
structure of
Hindu
Society.
XCVl INTRODUCTION
preservation of the society according to the principles
of dharma. But even the king was bound to dispense
justice in accordance with the principles of dharma*
The dispensation of justice was not only necessary for
social well-being but punishment was also regarded as
having a purificatory value for a man's post-mortem
well-being. The unrighteousness of a king destroys
dharma in the society and creates social disturbances
as well as physical misfortunes, such as, untimely
death, famine and epidemic. Thus the dispensation
of justice and its failure was regarded not only as
having immediate but also transcendental effects.
The king thus had a great responsibility. The king
exists for the discharge of dharma and not for self-
gratification (dharmaya raja bhavati na kamaharanaya
ideal of tu). Almost all the sciences of polity are in thorough
m iawfland agreement with the view that a king must first of all
politl>8> be absolutely self-controlled. But in spite of all these,
there were teachers like Bharadvaja who would advise
any kind of unprincipled action for the maintenance of
the king's power. But this was not accepted by most
of the political authorities, but Kautilya's code leaned
more or less to this type of action. In the Mahabharata
we find many passages in which the role of punishment
is extolled and Brhaspati also held that view. Side by
side with the view of divine authority of kings we have
also in the Mah&bharata and the Buddhist canons the
view that the king was elected by the people on the
terms of contract which involved the exchange of the
just exercise of sovereign power and obedience regarding
payment of taxes on the part of the people. In
Kautilya we find that he had due regard for the
social order of varnaframa and he regarded the
importance of the three Vedas, the Varta-£astra and
Polity. Kau^ilya lays great importance on the position
INTRODUCTION XCVli
of the king's office. The king constitutes within
himself his kingdom and his subjects. Yet there are
many passages in the Artha£astra to indicate that king's
authority depends upon the will of the people whom he
,has always to keep satisfied, and we find there that it is
the duty of the king to promote the security and
prosperity of the people in lieu of which the subjects
should pay taxes to him. Kau^ilya is also mainly
loyal to the DharmaSastra principle that the king is an
official who is entitled to receive taxes for the service
of protection and that he is spiritually responsible for
the discharge of his duties. Kautilya also lays down
a very high standard of moral life for the king. Good
education and self-control are the first requisites of good
government. Though there are elaborate rules of
foreign policy, Kautilya definitely lays down the view
that no king should covet his neighbour's territories,
and in case of battles with other kings it is his duty to
restore to throne the most deserving from the near rela-
tions of the vanquished king — a policy entirely different
from that of the imperialistic governments of to-day. A
king should only attempt to secure safety for his kingdom
and extend his influence on others. In later times,
between 900 and 1200 A.D., when the commentaries of
Medhatithi, Vijnanesvara and Apararka and the Jaina
Nltivakyamrta were written, we have the view, parti-
cularly in Medhatithi, that the principles of rdjadharma
and dandaniti, though principally derived from Vedic
institutions, are to be supplemented from other sources tbf king!* °f
and elaborated by reason. Thus, Medbatithi would not
restrict the office of kingship to a Ksatriya alone but
would extend it to any one who is ruling with proper
kingly qualities. Kalidasa also, we have seen, was
consistent with the teaching of the old Dharmatiastra
that the term ksatra was in meaning identical to the
XCVlli INTRODUCTION
term nrpa. Ksatra means ksatdt trdyate and nrpa
means nrn pati. The other aspect of the king is that
he should be popular, and this aspect is signified by
the term raja (raja prakrtiranjanat). But Medhatithi
uses the term raja, nrpa or pdrthiva to mean any ruling
prince. Medhatithi would apply the term nrpa even to
provincial governors. The subjects have the inalien-
able right of protection by the king by virtue of the
taxes they pay to him, and for any mischief that comes
to them, the king is responsible. If their property is
stolen, the king will restore the value of the articles
stolen. It seems also that Medhatithi not only concedes
to the view that the subjects may even in normal times
bear arms for self -protection, but when the king is
incompetent, they have also the right to rebel and
suspend the payment of taxes. But during the 12th to
the 17th century in the works of Sukra, Madhava and
Para4ara, we find again the theory of divine right of
kings coming to the forefront and the doctrine of the
perpetual dependence of subjects on the king and of the
king's immunity from harm advocated, which tended
to contradict the earlier concept of king as the servant
of the people.
From the above brief review we can well understand
the light in which the kings were held during the
really creative period of literature beginning from the
2nd or the 3rd century B. C. to the 12th century A.D.
The ideal of a king depicted in the Ramayana and also
in the Mahabharata as also in the works of Kalidasa and
other writers, reveals to us the integral relation of soli-
darity between the king and the subjects. Almost every
drama ends with the prayer which is a sort of national
anthem seeking the good of the king and the people. The
concept of the king involved the principle that he would
protect the people and be of such ideal character and
INTfiObUCTION
xcix
conduct that he might be liked by all. The term
prakrti, etyrnologically meaning the source or origin,
was a term to denote the subjects. This implied that the
king drew his authority from the subjects. This is the
reason why the kings often excited as much admiration
as the gods and though many panegyric verses in lite-
rature may have as their aim the flattery of kings for
personal gain, yet judging from the general relation
between the king and his subjects it can hardly be doubt-
ed that in most cases there was a real and genuine feeling
of sincere admiration and love for the king. This also
gives us the reason why royal characters were treated,
in kavya side by aide with the characters of gods, for
the king was god on earth not by his force or his power
of tyranny but through love and admiration that was
spontaneous about him on the part of the subjects.
The cordial relation between subjects and royal
patrons explains the origin of so many pra fasti and
carita kdvyas,
If we take a bird's-eye view of the Sanskrit litera-
ture we may classify them as Epic and Lyric kdvyas,
the carita kavyas (dealing with the lives of kings and
patrons of learning), the pra£astis or panegyrical verses,
the different types of dramas, lyric kavyas, the century
collections or satakas, the stotra literature or adoration
hymns, the Campus or works written in prose and
verse, the kathd, literature, the nlti literature, the
didactic verses and stray verses such as are found in the
anthologies. The sources of the materials of kavya as
held by Raja&khara, are Sruti, Smrti, Purana, Itih&sa,
Pramanavidya, Samaya-vidya or the sectarian doctrines
of the Saivas, Pancaratrins, etc., the Artha6astra, the
Natya£astra and the K&matastra, the local customs
and matiners, the different sciences and the literature
of other poets.
The place
of King and
in litera-
ture.
Types of
literature.
0 INTRODUCTION
Apart from the reference to poems written by Paijini
and to the dramas referred to in the Mahabhasya,
probably the earliest remains of good drama are the
dramas of Bhasa, which in some modified manner have
recentty ^een discovered. In the 1st century B.C. we
and the have the works of Kalidasa and in the 1st century A.D.
early
poetry. we have the Buddha-carita, the Saundarananda, the
3ariputraprakarana and an allegorical drama written
by A6vagho§a, the Buddhist philosopher. This was the
time of the Sungas, the Kanvas and the Andhra dynas-
ties. Pusyamitra had slain his master Brhadratha
Mauryya and had assumed sovereignty of the Mauryya
dominions of'Upper India and of South India up to the
Nerbudda and had repulsed Minander, king of Kabul
and the invader was obliged to retire to his own
country. His son Agnimitra had conquered Berar and
Pusyamitra performed the Asvamedha sacrifice and
revived Hinduism. The Mdlavikagnimitra of Kalidasa
gives a glowing account of the Rajasuya sacrifice
performed by Pusyamitra. The Buddhist writers
describe him as having persecuted the Buddhists. The
last Bunga king Devabhuti lost his life and throne
through the contrivances of his Brahmin minister,
Vasudeva. He founded the Kanva dynasty, which was
suppressed in 28 B.C. and the last Kanva king, Su^ar-
man, was slain by the Andhras, who had already
established themselves by the middle of the 3rd century
B.C. on the banks of the Krsna. The Andhra kings all
claimed to belong to the Satavahana family. The name
of Hala the 17th king has come down to us because of
his Sapta£ati of Prakrt erotic verses of great excellence.
It seems that at this time Prakrt rather than Sanskrit
was the language of poetry in the South. It is difficult
to ascertain the dates of Hala's Saptatati (which
have, however, in reality 430 stanzas common to all
INTRODUCTION
Cl
recensions, the rest may be an interpolation). Judging
from the nature of the Prakrt, one may think that the
work was probably written about 200 A.D. though it is
difficult to be certain of its date. In the meanwhile,
we have some of the specimens of the earliest prose in
the inscriptions of Kudradamana in Girnar (A.D. 150).
In the region of Bombay we get foreign rulers like the
K§aharatas who were probably subordinate to the Indo-
Parthian kings in the 1st century A.D. The next
chief was Nahapana. The Ksaharatas, however, were
extirpated by Gautamiputra-Satakarni, the Andhra
king. His son, Va&sthiputra Sripulumayi, had married
the daughter of Rudradarnana I, the Saka Satrap
of Ujjayini, but much of the territory of the son-in-
law was conquered by the father-in-law. As we
have just seen, Sanskrit was the court language of
Eudradamana and Yajfiafri, the son of Vasisthiputra
Sripulumayi, who was a great king of military exploits
(173-202 A.D.). The fall of the Andhra kings coincides
approximately with the death of Vasudeva, the last
great Kusan king of North Ipdia and with the rise
of the Sassanian dynasty of Persia (A.D. 226).
But the history of the 3rd century after Christ is
rather very obscure. The only important tradition
of literary growth during the Andhras is the legend
about king Satavahana or Salivahana, in whose court
Gunadhya and Sarvavarmacarya are supposed to have
lived. Gunadhya was born at Prati§thana in the Deccan
on the banks of the Godavarl. This city of Prati^hana
is the capital of the Andhrabhrtyas, though there is
much doubt about the location of the city. But there
is a Pratisthana on the banks of the Gauges as men-
tioned in the Harivamta. Bana refers to Satavahana
as having made the immortal repertory of beautiful
passages and this seems to indicate that there was great
Political
conditions in
the lat tnd
2nd centuries
B.C. andibe
literature of
tbe time.
cii INTRODUCTION
cultivation of Sanskrit poetry even before Satavahana.1
According to the legend, Satavahana's adopted father
8srvavaim&. wftg Dipajkarjjj an(j this indicates that he may have
belonged to the race of the Satakarnis. The Hala
Sapta$ati also conclusively proves that there was an
abundant literary production in the Praki\lauguage
and we have also strong reasons to believe that there
must have been many dramas in Prakrt. But we do
not know anything more about the exact time when
Hala may have flourished. But if the legend is to
be believed, the two great works, the K&tantra of
Sarvavarma and the Brhatkatha of Gunacjhya were
written at this time. That stories used by Gunadhya
were floating about among the populace, is well evident
from Kalidasa's statement udayana-katha-kovida-grama-
vrddhan in the Meghaduta and the utilisation of those
stories by Bbasa. We know that in all probability,
Kalidasa had flourished at the time of the- later Surigas
and Patanjali the grammarian was probably engaged
as a priest in the Horse Sacrifice of Puijyamitra. We
also know that the Saka kings like Rudradamana had
taken to the Sanskrit language and Vai§nava religion.
We also know from the inscriptions in the Besnagar
Column that the Greek ambassador Heliodorus had
accepted the Bhagavata religion. It is also probable
th^Minander the Greek king had become a Buddhist.
'Mitbradates I, the Persian king (170-136 B.C.),
had extended his dominions up to the Indus and this
explains why the chiefs of Taxila and Mathura had
assumed Persian titles in early times and we have the
remains of Persian culture in the excavations of Taxila.
\
ratnairiva 8ubha$itafy tt
INTRODUCTION
cm
It is possible that a Christian Mission under St.
Thomas had come to the court of the Indo-Parthian
king Gondophares at the beginning of the Christian
era, but the Mission seems to have left no impression.
It may not be out of place here to mention that neither
Alexander's conquest nor the association with Bactrian
kings, seems to have left any permanent impression
on the Indian mind. The Punjab or a considerable
part of it with some of the adjoining regions remained
more or "less under Greek rule for more than two centuries
(190 B.C. to iiO A.D.), but except the coins bearing
Greek legends on the obverse, hardly any effect of
Hellenisation can be discovered. It is surprising that
not a single Greek inscription is available. There is
no evidence of Greek architecture. The well-known
sculptures of Gandhara, the region around Peshawar,
are much later indeed and are the offsprings of cosmo-
politan Graeco-Roman art. The invasions of Alex-
ander, Antiochus the Great, Demetrios, Eukratides and
Minander were but military incursions which left no
appreciable mark upon the institutions of India. The
people of India rejected Greek political institutions
and architecture as well as language.
During the 2nd and the 3rd century, Saivism had
established itself very firmly in South. The Siva
cult had long been in existence among the Dravidians
and by the 3rd century A.D. it attained almost its
finished character in the noble and devout writings of
Manikkavachakara in Malabar. The Vasudeva cult
had already penetrated into the south and by the 3rd
and the 4th century A.D. the earliest Alwar thinkers
had started the Bhakti literature.
In the meanwhile, the Yueh-chis being attacked by
their foes, the Sakas, rushed forward and after subjugating
Kabul, entered ioto India and conquered the Punjab
Military
occupations
of the
Greeks If ft
but little
influence on
Indian
culture and
literature.
Saiva and
Vai^nava
cults
in the early
centuries fo
the Chris.
Man era.
A career of
the Sakat.
CIV
INTRODUCTION
Extension
of Indian
Empire up
to Khotan
and in the
west to
Afghanistan
converted to
Baddbiara.
under Kadphises I. His son Kadphises II not only
established his power in the Punjab but in a consider-
able part of the Gangetic plain in Benares (A.D. 45).
But these parts were probably governed at this time
by military Viceroys. In the meanwhile, the Yueh-
chis were being attacked by the Chinese. Kani?ka
tried to repel the Chinese but his army was totally
routed and he had to send several embassies to China
to pay tributes. The conquest of Kabul by the Yueh-
chis opened the land route towards the West and
Roman gold of the early Roman Emperors, such as
Tiberius (A.D. 14-38) began to pour into India
in payment for eilk, spices, gems and dye-stuff.
Southern India at the same time was holding an active
maritime trade with the Roman Empire and large
quantities of Roman gold poured into India. Now,
Kadphises II was succeeded by Kaniska (58 B.C.).
His dominions extended all over North-Western India
as far as the Vindhyas. A temporary annexation of
Mesopotamia by Trajan, the Roman Emperor, in 116
A.D. brought the Roman frontier within 600 miles
of the western limits of the Yueh-chi Empire.
Kar\iska had also conquered Kashmir and attacked
the city of Pataliputra from where he took away the
Buddhist saint A^vaghosa. His own capital was
Purugapur or Peshawar. Kaniska had also conquered
Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan. Thus the limits of
the Indian Empire extended up to Khotan, a fact
which explains the migration of Buddhist culture and
Indian works which are being occasionally discovered
there. The most important thing about him for our
purposes is that he was converted to Buddhism, as
may be known from his coins. Buddhism had in
his time developed into the Mahayana form of which
A£vagho§a was such an important representative and
INTRODUCTION
CV
the image of Buddha began to be installed in different
parts of his Empire, taking a place with the older gods,
such as Siva or Visnu and an elaborate mythology
of Buddhism developed. It is at this time in the 2nd
century A.D. that we have the style of sculpture
described as the Gandhara school which was a branch
of the cosmopolitan Graeco-Roman art. This style
of art, which is much inferior to the indigenous Indian
art, soon lost its currency. Kaniska called a council
for the interpretation of Buddhist scriptures and about
500 members of the Sarvastivada school met in
Kashmir and the Buddhist theological literature under-
went a thorough examination and elaborations were
made in huge commentaries on the Tripitaka. This
included the Mahavibhasa which still exists in its
Chinese translation and it is said that these commen-
taries were copied on sheets of copper and these were
deposited in a stupa near Srlnagar. From the time of
Kaniska we have the golden age of the development of
Buddhist Mahayana and Sarvastivada literature as also
the codification of most of the Indian philosophical
sutras. The first five or six centuries of the Christian
era were also the age of great philosophical controversy
between the Buddhists, the Hindus and the Jainas.
Asvaghosa himself had written the tfraddhotpada-sutra
and the Mahayana-sutralahMra. It has been urged
by Cowell that Kalidasa had borrowed from the
Buddhacarita. But this point is very doubtful and
the position may be reversed. The similarity of a few
passages in the Kumarasambhava and the Raghuvarfifa
does not prove any conscious indebtedness on any side,
so far as A6vagho§a's Buddhacarita is concerned. A6va-
ghosa also wrote a book pf Buddhist legends called the
Sutralahkara and also the Vajrasucl. More or less about
this time we had also the poet Matrceta and also the
Else of the
Mahayana
literature
and the
Gandhara
art.
Rise of the
philosophical
literature.
Literature
of the timei
CV1 INTRODQCTION
Buddhist poet Arya-gura who wrote the JatakamalU
in imitation of ASvaghosa's Sutralankara. His dic-
tion in prose and verse was of the kavya style. Some of
the important Avadanas were also written during the
1st or the 2nd century A.D. The A£okavadana was
actually translated into Chinese in the 3rd century A.D.
It is curious to notice that these Avadanas which were
written in Sanskrit, more or less at the time when
the Brhatkathd of Gunadhya was written in Pai&icl,
were seldom utilised by the Sanskrit writers. Many of
the Avadana legends are found in Ksemendra's work so
far as the essential part of the tales is concerned. But
the didactic element is preponderatingly much greater
in the Buddhist treatments. The great Mahay an a
writers Nagarjuna, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Candragomin,
Santideva and others began to follow in close succession.
The Mahayana literature gradually began to model
itself on the Puranas and the introduction of the
Dharanis and other cults and rituals as well as the
personification of powers into deities led to the rise of
the Buddhist Tantras. The Lahhavatara, a semi-philo-
sophical and semi-Tantrik work, was written probably
sometime in the 4th century and later on the Yoga
doctrine modified according to the psychology of the
different people — among the Tibetan, the Chinese and the
Japanese — assumed diverse forms. The stotra literature
also formed the model of the Buddhist stotras and
through this the theatre of the mental operation extended
not only from the Hindukush to Cape ComDrin but it
extended also to Further India, Tibet, China, Japan,
Korea, the Malay -Archipelago and many islands in the
Indian and the Pacific Ocean and also to Central Asia,
Turkistan, Turf an and other places.
The reign of Kaniska terminated in or about 123 A.D.
After him Vasiska and Huviska succeeded and Huviska
INTRODUCTION
CV11
was succeeded by Vasudeva I. The name signifies that
he was converted into Hinduism and his coins exhibit
the figure of Siva attended by the bull, Nandi and the
trident. Coins are found during the period 238-269
A.D. where a royal figure clad in the garb of Persia (an
imitation of the effigy of Shahpur I, the Sassanian) is
found, which indicates Sassanian influence in India.
But we have no more details of it from any inscriptions
of literary eminence. Probably numerous Rajas in India
asserted their independence as may be inferred from
muddled statements in the Puranas, such as the
Abhlras, Gardabhilas, Sakas, Yavanas, Vahlikas and
the successors of the &ndhras. The imperial city of
Pataliputra maintained its influence as late as the 5th
century A.D. but we practically know nothing about
the condition of the interior of India at this time.
The local Raja near Pataliputra called Candragupta
married a Licchavi princess named Kumaradevi about
the year 308 A.D. We do not hear much of the
Licchavis in the intervening period of history since the
reign of Ajata&itru. Candragupta was strengthened
by this alliance and he extended his dominion
along the Gangetic Valley as far as the junction of the
Ganges and the Jamuna, about 320 A.D. Between 330
and 335 A.D. he was succeeded by his son Samudra-
gupta who immediately after his succession plunged
himself into war. The multitude of praSastis in the ins-
criptions have immortalised his reign in Indian history.
The elaborate composition of Harisena with its contents
is a historical document which is remarkable also
as a linguistic and literary landmark. Samudragupta's
Empire extended on the North and the East from Kama-
rflpa to Tamralipti including the modern site of Calcutta
and extended westwards in a straight line across the
Vindhyas to Guzerat and Saura§tra later on acquired
Uncertain
political
conditions
after
Rise of th»
G apt as.
cViii INTRODUCTION
by his son Candragupta II and on the north
to the borders of .Nepal up to the banks of the
Cbenab river in the Punjab. He performed an
Atvamedha ceremony and is reputed to have been
an adept not only in music and song but it
is said that he had also composed many metrical works
of great value and was called a King of Poets. He
allowed the Buddhist king Meghavarna of Ceylon to
erect a monastery and temple in Buddhagaya. In the
7th century when Hiuen-Tsang visited it, it was a
magnificent establishment which accommodated
1000 monks of the Sthavira school and afforded
hospitality to monks from Ceylon. Samudragupta
had also received Vasuvaridhu. Throughout his
conquests he secured submission of the various
chiefs but he seldom annexed their territory. He
had removed his capital to Ayodhya from Pataliputra.
Thus when Hiuen-Tsang came in the 7th century,
he found Patalipufcra in ruins but when Raja&khara
mentions the glory of Pataliputra, he refers to
Upavarsa, Varsa, Panini, Pingala, Vyadi, Vararuci
and Patanjali as having been tested according to the
tradition in Pataliputra.1 His successor Candragupta,
who had assumed the title of Vikramaditya, led
bis conquests to the Arabian Sea through Malwa,
Guzerat and Kathiuwad, which had been ruled for
centuries by the Saka dynasty. We know that the
capital of Castana and his successors was Ujjayim.
Vidisa was also the important centre of Agnimitra.
But Samudragupta and his successors had made their
capital in Ayodhya. It will therefore be wrong to
suppose that one should make Kalidasa a resident of
Ujjayini and yet make him attached to the court of
, p. 55,
INTRODUCTION
C1X
Candragupta II. KaufiambI, which stood on the high
road to UjjayinI and North India, had the Asoka pillar
on which there is inscribed an inscription of Samudra-
gupta and it has been argued that Kausamb! also
formed his temporary place of residence. Candra-
gupta II destroyed the Saka Satrapy by first dethroning
and then executing Rudrasena. Though he was tole-
rant of Buddhism and Jainism he was an orthodox
Hindu and probably a Vaisnava. From Fa Hien's
accounts (405-411 A.D.) we find that people were
enjoying good government and abundant prosperity at
the time of Vikramaditya.
Still then there were monasteries in Pataliputra
whereabout six to seven hundred monks resided, and Fa
Hien spent three years there studying Sanskrit. At his
time "charitable institutions, were numerous. Rest
houses for travellers were provided on the highways
and the capital possessed an excellent free hospital
endowed by benevolent and educated citizens — hither
come all poor helpless patients suffering from all kinds
of infirmities. They are well taken care of and a
doctor attends them. Food and medicine are supplied
according to their wants and thus they are made quite
comfortable and when they are well they may go
away."1 In describing the state of the country Fa
Hien speaks of the lenience of the criminal law. He
further says : "throughout the country no one kills
any living thing, or drinks wine or eats onions or
garlic. They do not keep pigs or fowls, there are no
dealings in cattle, no butchers' shops or distilleries in
the market places. Only the candalas, hunters and
fishermen lived a different way of life. The only source
of revenue was rent on crown lands.'2-2- Fa Hien never
Vikrama-
ditya
Candra-
gupta II.
Fa Hien 'B
evidence
regarding
the condi-
tion of the
country.
Smith '• Early History of India, pp. 296-296.
CX INTRODUCTION
speaks of brigands or thieves. At the death of Candra-
gupta, Kumaragupta I ascended the throne in 413 A.D.
It will be wrong to suppose that Saivism spread
from the South to the North for even Kadphises II, the
Kusana conqueror, was an worshipper of Siva and put
the image of Siva on his coins and during the whole"
period when Buddhism acquired ascendency in India,
Literature worship of Hindu gods had continued unabated. The
of the time. . °
only distinctly Buddhist coins were those that
were struck by Kaniska but the next king Vasudeva
had been a Hindu, cis has already been mentioned, and
the Saka Satraps were also Hindus. The Pali language
of the Buddhists were reserved only for Buddhist reli-
gious works. No kavya or drama were written in Pali
and after A3oka it was seldom used as the language of
inscriptions and even the language of Asoka's inscrip-
tions was not Pali. Though we are unable to place
Kalidasa in the Gupta period there was undoubtedly a
great enlightenment of culture during the Gupta period
which went on till the llth or the 12th century. We
have not only at this time Vatsabhatti and Harisena
but a galaxy of other writers. The panegyrics of both
Harisena and Vatsabhatti illustrate the highest style that
Sanskrit had attained at this period. Bharavi also
probably lived in the 5th century and Bhat^i also in all
probability lived somewhere during the 5th or the 6th
century. It has been suggested that Sudraka may also
have lived at this time, but we really know very little
about Sudraka. Aryabhata,{the celebrated astronomer,
also probably lived towards the end of the 5th or the
middle of the 6th century. The laws of Manu as we
find it and also of Yajnavalkya probably belong to
this age. But as regards the poets, it will be- rash to
say that they were invariably attached to courts of
kings. They probably lived well to be able, to turn to
INTRODUCTION
CXI
their vocation of writing poetry, but it may be supposed
that they had always some patrons among the rich
people.
Art and architecture, both Buddhist and Brahmi-
nical, flourished during the 5th and the 6th century
and though by the ravages of Moslem army almost
every Hindu building was pulled to pieces and all large
edifices of the Gupta age had been destroyed, yet recent
researches have discovered for us a few specimens of
architectural compositions of a considerable skill in out
of the way places. The allied art of sculpture attained
a degree of perfection, the value of which is being
recently recognised. Painting as exemplified by the
frescoes of Ajanta and the cognate works of Sigiria in
Ceylon (479-97) are so many best examples of Indian
art. Colonisation of the Malayan ATchipelago, Java
and Sumatra had begun probably at least in the early
centuries of the Christian era and- Indian civilisation,
particularly Brahminic, had already been established in
the Archipelago by 401 A. D. By the middle of the
7th century, according to the report of I-Tsing,
Buddhism was in a flourishing condition in the island
of Sumatra and it grew side by side with the Hindu
culture. The study of Sanskrit was so much current
there that I-Tsing spent about 6 months in order to
acquaint himself with Sanskrit grammar. The earliest
Sanskrit inscriptions, however, are found in Borneo
and during the 4th century A.D. Borneo was being
ruled by Hindu kings, such as A^vavarman, Mulavar-
man, etc. Already in the 5th century we hear of
Purnavarman in Western Java and the worship of
Visnu and Siva was prevalent in those parts. Mahayana
forms of Buddhism also flourished in the country in
the 8th and 9th centuries. In India we find the
Vaisnava and the Saiva worship flourish side by side
Gupta civi-
lisation and
colonisation
by Indians
during the
early cen-
turies of
the Chris-
tian era.
cxn
INTRODUCTION
Contact
with China
daring the
later
Guptas.
ValabbI and
Anhilwara
the centres
of learning
from the
5th to the
15th cen-
tury.
with Buddhism. But the golden age of the Guptas
lasted for^t century and a quarter (330-455). Skanda-
gupta came to the throne in 455 A.D. He successfully
resisted thePusyamitras from the South and drove away
the Huns. But in the second invasion of the Huns he
was defeated, as we know from an inscription dated
458 A.D. He appointed - Parnadatta Viceroy of the
West who gave Junagad or Girnar to his son. At
about 465 and also in 470 the Huns began to pour in.
Skandagupta probably died in 480 A.D. With his
death the Empire vanished but the dynasty remained.
After his death Puragupta succeeded who reigned from
485 to 535 A.D. The importance of Magadha, how-
ever, and the University of Nalanda survived the down-
fall of the Guptas. We have the account of a Chinese
Mission sent to Magadha in 539 A.D. for the collection
of original Mahayana texts and for obtaining services of
scholars capable of translating them into Chinese.
During the reign of Jlvitagupta I, Paramartha was sent
to China with a large collection of manuscripts. He
worked for 23 years in China and died at the age of 70
in 569. During his reign Bodhidharma also went to
China (502-549).
In the Western province of Malwa we find record of
other kings such as Buddhagupta and Bhanugupta.
Towards the close of the 5th century Bbatarka
established himself at Valabhi in Kathiawad in 770.
The great Buddhist scholars, Gunamati and Sthiramati
resided in Valabhi and Valabhi became a great centre
of learning. After the overthrow of Valabhi its place
was taken by Anhilwara, which retained its importance
till the 15th century.
The Huns, however, overthrew the Gupta Empire
and became rulers of Malwa and Central India. But
Mihirakula was defeated by a confederacy of kings
INTRODUCTION
CX111
headed by Baladitya and Yafodharman, a Raja of
Central India. Mihirakula fled to Kashmir. The
Kashmirian king allowed him the charge of a small
territory. Mihirakula then rebelled against his bene-
factor and killed his whole family. But this Hun
leader had become a devotee of Siva. With the death
of Mihirakula India enjoyed immunity from foreign
attacks for a long time.
We must now come to Harsa (606-647). Harsa
was a great patron of learning and Bana has given
some account of him in his Harsacarita. Harsa' s
Empire was almost equivalent to that of Samudragupta.
Harsa was himself a great poet. He wrote three
dramas, the Ratnavatt, the Priyadar&ka and the Nag a-
nanda. Candra, probably Candragomin, the great
grammarian, wrote a Buddhist drama called Lokananda
describing the story as to how a certain Manicuda gave
away his wife and children to a Brahmin out of genero-
sity. He lived before 650 A.D. as he is cited in the
Ka£ika Vrtti. A contemporary of his, Candradasa, had
dramatised the Vessantara legend. Whether Candra
and Candragomin are identical, may be a matter of
indecisive controversy. But Candra or Candraka's
poems are quoted in the Subhasitavali and he was
admired by the rhetoricians. Almost a contemporary
of Harsa was Mahendravikramavarman, son of
the Pallava king Simhavikramavarman, and he
also was himself a king who ruled in Kafici. He
wrote a prahasana (Mattavilasa) showing the same
technique as that of Bhasa. Bana, we know^
not only wrote the Harsacarita and the Kddambari,
but also the Candl-tataka, the Mukuta-taditaka
(a drama) and Pdrvatlpqrinaya (a rupaka). It is
doubtful whether he or Vamana Bhatta Bana was the
author of the Sarvacariia-nataka, The grecit dramatist
The Huns
supplanting
the Guptas.
Mibirakula
becomes a
Saiva.
Develop-
ment of
literature
from the
7th to the
10th cen-
tury,
CX1V INTRODUCTION
Bhavabhuti also flourished about 700 A.D. His three
plays, the M&latimadhava, the Uttaracarita and the
Viracarita are masterpieces of Sanskrit drama. Though
the exact date of Subandhu, author of the Vasavadatta,
cannot be determined yet as both Bana and Vamana of
the 8th century refer to him, he must have flourished in
the 6th or the 7th century. Bhatti also probably
flourished in the 6th or the 7th century. Bhamaha
was slightly junior to him. The Natyatastra had been
written probably in the 2nd century A.D. The poet
Medhavin and the Buddhist logician Dharmaklrti, who
was also a poet, flourished probably in the 6th century
and Dandin, author of the Karyadar£a and the Da^a-
kwnaracarita probably also flourished in the 6th century.
Dinnaga, the Buddhist logician, bad flourished in the
5th century during which time Vatsayana also wrote
his Bhasya on the Nyayasutra. The Sanikhya-karika
of Isvarakrsna was probably written by the 3rd century
A.D. and the Nyayasutras were probably composed
near about that time and the Vedanta-sutras of Badara-
yana were probably composed by the 2nd century A.D.
and we have already mentioned Vasuvandhu, author of
the Abhidharmakosa and many important Buddhist
works, who lived in the 4th century and was
a senior contemporary of Samudragupta. Udbhata
probably flourished in the 8th century and the
Dhvanyaloka was probably written in the latter
half of the 9th century. Udbhata was not only
a rhetorician but he had also written a Kumara-
sambhava. We have already said that Vamana
lived probably in the 8th century, but as Vamana
quotes from Magha, Magha must have lived probably
in the middle of the 7th century. The Katika
commentary was written about 660 A.D. and the Ny&sa
was probably written between 700 and 750 A,Df
iNtRODtCTlON
CXV
Rudrata also flourished before 900 and Abhinavagupta
who wrote his Locana on the Dhvanyaloka probably
about 3 50 years after, flourished in the 1 1th century
and RajaSekhara probably lived in the first quarter of
the 10th century. Vigakhadatta, the author of the
Mudraraksasa, probably lived in the 9th century.
Bhattanarayana, the author of the Benisamhara, is
quoted by Vamana, and must, therefore, have Jived
before 800 A.D. If he were one of the Brahmins who
were brought to Bengal from Kanauj by king AdiSura,
he may have lived in the 7th century A.D. Kumara-
dasa, the author of the Janakiharana, was probably a
king of Ceylon and probably lived in the beginning of
the 6th century. Mentha lived probably in the latter
part of the 6th century and king Pravarasena, the
author of the Setuvandha, must have lived during the
same time. The Kashmirian author Bhumaka who
wrote his Ravanarjuriiya in 27 cantos, probably also
lived at this time. Towards the close of the 9th century
we have the Kapphanabhyudaya based on the tale of the
AvadanaSataka by SivasvamI, one of the few exceptions
where the Avadana literature has been utilised. But
there are some other poets like Bhattara Haricandra or
Gunadhya or Adhyaraja whose works are not ;now
available.
After Harsa, the Empire was practically broken and
we have a number of kingdoms in various parts of the
country. China was trying to assert suzerainty in the
northern frontier and when its power vanished in the
first half of the 6th century, the domains of the White
Huns were extending up to Gandhara and between 563
and 567 this country was held by the Turks. In 630
the Northern Turks were completely vanquished by the
Chinese who extended their domains to Turfan and
Kucha, thus securing the northern road communication
Political
and literary
contact with
the neigh-
bouring
countrUi.
iNTRODtCtlOfo
from East to West. Gampo, the Tibetan king (A.U>.
630) who had become a Buddhist, was friendly to India.
In 659 China rose to the height of its power and was in
possession of this country upto Kapi6a. The Turks
were finally routed by the Chinese in A.D. 744 and
between 665 and 715, the northern route from China to
India between the Xaxartes and the Indus was closed
and the southern route through Kashgar was closed by
the Tibetans and the road over the Hindukush was
closed by the Arabs with the rise of Islam. But again
by 719 the Chinese regained influence on the border of
India. Buddhism developed in Tibet as against the
indigenous Bon religion. The Indian sages, Santara-
k$ita and Padmasarmbhava, were invited to Tibet.
Contact between politics of India and that of China
had ceased in . the 8th century owing to the growth of
the. Tibetan power. In the 7th century, the Tantrik
form of the Mahay an a, so closely allied to the Tantrik
worship in India, had established itself in Nepal.
Nepal was conqured by the Gurkhas of the Hindu faith
and there has been a gradual disintegration of Buddhism
from that time. Kashmir was being ruled by Hindu
kings and in the 8th century we had Candrapi<Ja,
Muktapida and Jayapida, and in the 9th century there
were the kings Avantivarman and Sankaravarman and
in the 10th century we have the kings Partha, Unmatta-
vanti and later on Queen Didda, all of whom were
tyrannical. In the llth century we have king Kalasa
and Har§a, after which .it was conquered by the
Moslems.
Political After Harsa's death, in the 8th century we have
i^u» after0 king YaSovarman in Kanauj, a patron of Bhavabhuti
Har?a. an(j Vakpatiraja. At the end of the 8th century, the
reigning monarch Indrayudha was dethroned by
Dharmapala, king of Bengal, who enthroned a relative
INTRODUCTION
cxvli
of his, Cakrayudha, who was again dethroned by
Nagabhata, the Gurjara-Pratihara king. He transferred
bis capital to Kanauj. In the 9th century we have
king Bhoja. Bhoja's son Mahendrapala had for his
teacher the poet Rajasekhara. These kings were all
Vaisnavas. After this the power of Kanauj began to
wane. In the 10th century Jayapala, king of the
Upper Valley of the Indus Region and most of the
Punjab, attacked King Sabuktagln and in the subsequent
battles that followed was worsted and committed suicide.
In Kanauj, king Rajyapala was defeated by the Moslems.
With the disappearance of the Gurjara-Pratihara
dynasty of Kanauj, a Raja of the Gahadwar clan named
Candradeva established his authority over Benares and
Ayodhya and also over Delhi. This is known as the
Rathore dynasty. In the 12th century we have Raja
Jayacand under whose patronage Sriharsa, the poet,
wrote his great work Naisadhacarita.
It is unnecessary to dilate more upon the political
history of India. Bui from the body of the book and
from what has been said in the Editorial Notes, it
would appear that the current opinion that the glorious
age of the Sanskrit literature synchronised with the
glorious epoch of the Guptas, is not quite correct. On
the other band, great writers like Kalidasa and Bhasa
flourished before the dawn of the Christian era — at the
time probably of the Mauryas, and also shortly after the
reign of Pusyamitra at the time of the great Hindu
ascendency ; the rise of Buddhism gave a great impetus
to the development of sciences and particularly to philo-
sophy ; but inspite of Buddhism, Hinduism became
the prevailing religion of the kings of India and in
many cases the kings themselves turned to be
poets. Inspite of the colossal political changes and
turmoils in various parts of the country and various
A general
review of
the growth
of Sanskrit
Literature.
fcJcviii
foreign inroads and invasions, we had a new era of
literary culture and development till the T2th century,
when the country was subjugated by the Mahom-
medans. Many writers have suggested that it is
the foreign impact of the Sakas, the Hunasf the
Turks, the Chinese, the Tibetans, that gave an
incentive, by the introduction of new ideas, to literary
development. But such a view will appear hardly
to be correct, for to no period of the literary
development of India can we ascribe any formative
influence due to foreign culture. The Hindu literary
development followed an insulated line of Trivarga-
siddhi all through its course from the 12th
century onwards. With the occupation of Upper
India by the Moslems and their inroads into
Southern India and with the growth of stringency
of the Smrti rules and the insulating tendency,
the former free spirit gradually dwindled away
and we have mostly a mass of stereotyped litera-
ture to which South India, jvhich was comparatively
immune from the Moslem invasion, contributed largely.
Southern India also distinguished itself by its contri-
butions to Vai§nava thought and the emotionalistic
philosophy which had its repercussions in North India
also. Some of the greatest thinkers of India, like
Nagarjuna and Sankara and Ramanuja, Jayatlrtha and
Vyasatlrtha, hailed from the South and deyotionalism,
which began with the Arvars in the 3rd or the 4th
century A.D., attained its eminence in the 16th or the
17th century along with unparalleled dialectic skill of
Venkata, Jayatlrtha and Vyasatirtba. Philosophy in
the North dwindled into formalism of the new school of
NySya, the rise of emotionalism in Caitanya and his
followers^ and the stringency of the Smyti in the
nivandhas of Baghunandana.
INTRODUCTION CX1X
In attempting to give a perspective of the growth
and development of Sanskrit literary culture from the appearance
racial, religious, social, political and environmental Jj
backgrounds, we have omitted one fact of supreme
importance, viz., the rise of geniuses, which is almost
wholly unaccountable by any observable data, and though
poets of mediocre talents may maintain the literary flow
yet in the field of literature as also in politics it is
the great geniuses that stand as great monuments of the
advancement of thought and action. No amount of
discussion or analysis of environmental conditions can
explain this freak of Nature just as in the field of
Biology the problem of accidental variation cannot be
explained. Why a Sudraka, a Bhasa4 a Kalidasa,
a Bhavabhuti or a Bana lifted up his head at parti-
cular epochs of Indian history, will for ever remain
unexplained. Kaja^ekhara regards poetic genius as
being of a two-fold character, creative and appreciative.
He alone is a poet to whom any and every natural or
social surrounding provokes his creative activity to
spontaneous flow of literary creation. This creative
function may manifest itself through properly arranged
words in rhyme or rhythm in the appreciation of
literary art and also in the reproduction of emotions
through histrionic functions. This individuality of
genius in a way prevents the determination of great
works of literary art as being the causal functions of
historical conditions.
But though the consensus of opinion among the
rhetoricians point to the view that the mark of true of poets. **
poetry is the creation of sentiments, yet Baja^ekhara
and others regard wide experience as an essential
characteristic of a good poet. A poet's words should
have a universality of application and the manner of
his delivery should be such that his failures should be
CXX INTRODUCTION
unnoticeable. Raja^ekhara further maintains that
though genius is of supreme importance, yet learning
is also essential. He distinguishes two types of
poets, the Sastra-kavi, who depicts sentiments
and the kavya-kavi who by his mode of delivery softens
difficult ideas and thoughts. Both have their
place in literature. Both reveal two tendencies
which are complementary to each other. The accept-
ance of learning within the category of the essential
qualities that go to make poetry, has well-established
itself not only in the time of Raja^ekhara but long
before him in the time of Bhatti and probably much
earlier than him. Bhatti takes pride in thinking that
his poems would not be intelligible to people who are
not scholars. This wrong perspective arose probably
from the fact that the grammatical and lexico-
graphical sciences as well as the philosophical disci-
pline had attained a high water-mark of respect with
the learned people who alone could be the judges of
poetry. This view, however, was riot universal ; for as
has elsewhere been noted, Bhamaha urges that kdvya
should be written in such a manner as to be intelligible
even to those who have no learning or general
education.
literary We have seen that Sanskrit had become almost
standard* absolutely stereotyped by the middle of the 2nd century
g"uage.n B.C. ; we have also seen that the Prakrt, as we find in
literature in spite of their names as Magadhi, Saura-
sen! and Mahara^ri, was not really the spoken language
of those parts of the country. What we have are the
standardised artificial forms of Prakrt which were used
for the purpose of literature. It is doubtful^ to what
extent one can regard the Prakrt of the A6okan inscrip-
tions to be the spoken dialect of any part of the country,
though it has been held by many scholars that the
INTRODUCTION CXX1
Eastern dialect was the lingua franca of the whole
Empire and we assented to this view in the Preface.
The variations found in the Girnar, the Kalinga and
the Siddapur edicts would raise many problems of con-
siderable difficulty.
Another important question that may arise particu-
larly in connection with the drama and the prose litera- spoken
language?
ture, is the question as to whether Sanskrit was the
spoken language at any time. In our Preface we
pointed out that neither Samskrta nor Prakrta was
regarded as the name of speech so far as it can be
traced from the evidences of earlier Sanskrit literature.
Panini distinguishes between the Vedic and the
Paninian language, as Vaidika and Bhasa (spoken
language). Patanjali in his Bhasija says that the
object of grammar is to supply rules of control for
current speech (laukika in the sense of being known to
the common people, or as having sprung from the
common people. Y But why should then there be at all
rules for the control of speech ? The answer is : one,
for the preservation of the integrity of the Vedas ;2 and
two, for making proper transformations of suffixes from
the forms given in the Samhitas for practical sacrificial
use ; and three, in pursuance of the general duty for all
Brahmins to study the Vedas of which the chief acces-
sory is grammar ; four, grammar is the shortest
route for the study of correct words ; five, for arriving
at certainty of meaning and for laying proper accents on
words. In addition to this, Patanjali adds some supple-
1 lobe vidita iti lokasarvalok&tthaft iti thafl !
athava bhav&rthe adhyatm&ditvat thaft ]
evarp vede bhava vaidikah \ MahSbha$ya— Paspad&hniks.
2 There may be forms in the Vedas which are Dot found in the current
speech and one who is not versed in grammar might easily be led to think that
the Vedic form is erroneous.
p— 1343B
CXXll INTRODUCTION
mentary reasons. These are as follows : — the Asuras
who imitated the Brahmins in performing the sacrifices
often misused the words or misplaced the accents.
Thus, instead of putting the pluta accent on he and
pronouncing the word arayah after it, they used the
words helaya, helaya, and were defeated for the reason
that they could not get the benefit of the sacrifice for
victory ; for this reason, a Brahmin should not mispro-
nounce the words like the mlecchas. A wrong word or
a wrong accent fails to denote the proper meaning. So
to safeguard oneself from wrong usage one should study
grammar. The study of grammar is also necessary for
the comprehension of proper meaning. There are
more wrong words and accents in currency than proper
words and accents, for in place of one proper word or
accent there may be many wrong words and accents
and only the man who knows grammar can distinguish
between the right and the wrong word. Here
we find the purificatory influence of grammar. More-
over, rules of decorum require that the pluta accent
should be given in offering salutations to respected
persons, whereas in greeting a woman or a person
coming from a distant place, one should omit the pluta
accent. None but one versed in grammar can distin-
guish these. People often think that the Vedic words
may be known from the Vedas and the current words
from current speech, but the above discourse will show
that there is a necessity for studying grammar for the
acquirement in both.
A review of the above discourse reveals to us the
following uncontestable facts — viz., that even in
the time of Patanjali the Paninian language was used
in current speech though many mispronounced and mis-
accented or corrupt or foreign words had crept into the
current speech. The current speech was thus not
INTRODUCTION CXX111
exactly what we call Paninian Sanskrit but Sanskrit
in which there is a very large admixture of corrupt
words, for Patanjali expressly says bhuyamsah
apasavdah, and a codified grammar was needed for
sieving out the corrupt words though it cannot be
denied that inspite of the sieving some popular words
of foreign or aboriginal character were accepted as
genuine Sanskrit words. The word titan occurring in a
verse quoted by Patanjali is an instance of it. We also
find that by Patanjali's time the tradition was that the
Asuras had accepted Brahmiuic forms of sacrifice but
they could not attain the fruits of them as they could
not properly pronounce the Sanskrit words. The rules
of accent prescribed for greeting persons also show that
Sanskrit as mixed up with corrupt words was in use
among the people. Those, however, who achieved the
discipline of a grammatical study used the words re-
cognised as chaste by the grammatical tradition. The
mixed language as used by common folk was not un-
intelligible to the learned nor the speech of the learned
unintelligible to the common people. A parallel may
be drawn from the existing literary Bengali language
and the spoken language varying from district to district
with regard to words and accents. The learned
Bengalees may not even understand properly in some
cases the dialectical folk languages of another locality.
Thus the Chittagong dialect of Bengali would hardly
be intelligible to a learned Bengalee of Calcutta. A
learned Chitlagong-man may talk in standard Bengali
with other learned men but may at the same time use
his own dialect in talking with the common people of
his native place or he may even intersperse Chittagong
words with the words of standard Bengali. The stan-
dardisation of accent is still more difficult to be
attained.
CXX1V
Dr. Hannes Skold in his work on the Nirukta says
that the derivations suggested by Yaska are only intelli-
gible if we assume that he was conversant with some
kind of Middle Indian Prakrt speech. Prof. Liiders
says that the language of Asoka's Chancery was
a high language but the actual spoken speech had
almost advanced to a stage of the literary Prakrts.
Keith holds that Yaska spoke Sanskrit as he wrote it
and the officials of Asoka spoke in the language similar
to what they wrote, while the lower classes of the people
spoke in dialects which had undergone much phonetical
transformation. From Patafljali's statement referred to
above we can gather that the upper classes who were
conversant with grammar spoke the chaster speech but
as we go down the stratum the language was of a
corrupt nature. The alien people on whom the Aryans
had imposed their language could not also speak it
correctly. The directions of royal edicts as found in
the Arthatastra, Chapter 31, would lead to the presump-
tion that the edicts were drafted in Sanskrit. A3oka
was probably the first to issue edicts in some form of
Prakrt as found in the inscriptions. It is also diffi-
cult to assert that A^oka's inscriptions were written in
accordance with the speech of the countries in which the
edicts appeared; for, though the language and the
grammar of the edicts have many differences in different
localities yet these would be too small in comparison
with the actual dialectical varieties that might have
existed between Mysore and Guzerat. We think there-
fore that though the Prakrt speech was current in
A4oka's time and even in earlier times among the
common people, among the higher classes Sanskrit was
used in common speech. But the tatsama words flowed
continuously into the current speech.
INTRODUCTION
CXXV
The study of Sanskrit kavyas and their appreciation
have their own difficulties. Excepting in the case of a
few writers of elegance like Kalidasa, Bhasa or Sudraka,
most of the Sanskrit works in poetry are not easily
accessible to those who have no proficiency in the
language and even for the proficient it is not always an
easy reading and at times one cannot make much of
them without commentaries. The study of Sanskrit
kavyas, therefore, cannot be an easy pastime and cannot
always be enjoyed as recreation in leisure hours. t€ The
great poets of India, -' as Keith says, " wrote for
audiences of experts ; they were masters of the learning
of their day, long trained in the use of language and
they aimed to please by subtlety, not simplicity of
effect. They had at their disposal a singularly
beautiful speech and they commanded elaborate and
most effective metres." Under the circumstances,
though the kavya literature contains within it some
of the great master-pieces of poetical works, it cannot
hope to become popular with those who have a mere
lisping knowledge of Sanskrit or who are unwilling to
take the trouble of undertaking a difficult journey
through the intricacies of the language. To the trained
ear the music of the poetry is so enthrallingly bewitch-
ing that the mere recitation of the verses in the proper
manner produces a sense of exhilaration. I have seen
that even in Europe, when I recited the verses, persons
who had but little acquaintance with Sanskrit, had
been tremendously affected by the sonorous rhythm of
the Sanskrit verses and large audiences almost felt
themselves spell-bound by the mystery of the music.
Another difficulty regarding Sanskrit poetry is that,
more than the poetry in other languages, the charm of
Sanskrit poetry in untranslatable, as a large part of
it is derived from the rhythm and % the cadence..
Difficulties
of appreciat-
ing Sanskrit
Poetry.
INTRODUCTION
Keith says : "German poets like Kiickert can indeed
base excellent work on Sanskrit originals, but the
effects produced are achieved by wholly different means,
while English efforts at verse translations fall invariably
below a tolerable mediocrity, their diffuse tepidity
contrasting painfully with the brilliant condensation of
style, the elegance of metre and the close adaptation of
sound to sense of the originals."
Not a less attractive part of Sanskrit poetry is its
Sanskrit charming descriptions of natural scenes and the
*°* **' beauties of the seasons. As we go from poet to poet
we often notice a change of outlook and perspective
which cannot but leave a bright and exhilarating effect
on our imagination. Thus, throughout the descrip-
tions of natural scenes and objects as depicted by
Kalidasa, we find that the whole Nature is a replica of
the human world — the same feelings and emotions, the
same passions and sorrows, the same feelings of
tenderness, love, affection and friendship that are found
to reign in the human mind, are also revealed in the
same manner for Kalidasa in and through all the objects
of Nature. The Yaksa in the Meghaduta employs the
cloud as the messenger to his love-lorn lady in the
Alakapuri, and the cloud itself is made to behave as
the friend, benefactor and lover of the flowers and
rivers, mountains and forests, over which it may pass
dropping showers of rain. Nature may be dumb but
yet she understands the sorrows of men and is friendly
to them. In addressing the clouds he says : " Though
you do not give any verbal response to my words yet
I cannot think that you will not render me a friendly
turn, for even in your silence you supply water to the
catafea." In the last verse of the Meg haduta, Kalidasa
says addressing the cloud : " Oh Cloud ! may you not
be separated from the lightning who is your wife.
INTRODUCTION CXXV11
f
Either for the sake of friendship or for the sake of
kindness or by finding me aggrieved, you may serve me
as a messenger and after that you may go wherever you
please." The seasons appeared to Kalidasa almost
as living beings. They are not merely the friends of
man but throughout .Nature the life and personality of
the seasons are realised in joy and love, and in Kali-
dasa's descriptions this aspect of Nature becomes
extremely vivid. •
But when Valmiki looks at Nature, his general
emphasis is on the realistic aspect of Nature. The
aspect of its utility to man is thin and shadowy. But
as we proceed onwards we find that gradually Nature
begins to rise to the human level and often its
practical utility to man is emphasised, e.g., in the
Rtusamhdra of Kalidasa. The emphasis on the prag-
matic aspect has indeed a deleterious effect on the
nature of poetry, but oftentimes in the descriptions of
the poets the pragmatic aspect is thinned away and
human diameters are ascribed to Nature, or Nature
has been enlivened with the fulness of human conscious-
ness. Starting from realism we often pass into idealism
as self-reflection. In the Rcimayana, for example,
Valmiki in describing the situation of Rama in his
separation from Sita and in contrasting it with the state
of Sugriva, describes the sorrow of Rama. Thus he
says : "1 am without my wife and my throne and am
being broken into pieces like the bank of a river. As
the rains make all places extremely impassable, so my
sorrow is broad and wide and it seems to me as if I
can never ford over to my great enemy Ravana." But
Valmiki here does not describe what Rama would have
done if his wife was near by. He had seen the
lightning by the side of the dark cloud and he was at
once reminded as to how Sita might have been lying
CXXVlli INTRODUCTION
in the lap of Eavana. Looking at the new showers of
rain he is reminded of the falling tears of Slta.
Nature thus reminds the human situation and events
but there is no tinge of any pragmatic perspective
regarding the rains. But human comparisons are
quite common. Thus in describing the hills he speaks
of them as if they were wearing garments of black
deer-skin and he compares the rains with the holy
Jihread and music of the rains with the chanting of
Vedic hymns. But apart from such human analo-
gies the general tendency of Valmiki's description is
realism — descriptions of fruits and flowers, of birds and
beasts, of muddy roads and moist winds, and so on.
Bhavabhuti seems to have followed this realistic ten-
dency of Valmlki in his descriptions of Nature, which
is sometimes sublime and sombre. Such a realistic
tendency can be found in other poets also. Thus, the
poet Abhinanda speaks of dreadful darkness torn some-
times into pieces by the gleaming lightning ; even the
tree before us cannot be seen ; their existence can only be
inferred from the collection of fire-flies; the whole night
is ringing with the humming of crickets.
Thus, the different poets of India had approached
Nature from diverse points of view, some realistic, some
pragmatic, some idealistic.
Thus, in spite of criticisms that may be levelled
against Sanskrit poetry, to a learned Sanskritist who
is acquainted with the trailing history of the allusive
words and its penumbra, the double meanings and the
associated myths, Sanskrit poetry with its luxurious
images, cadence of rhyme, jingling alliteration of word-
sounds, creates a wonderland of magic and joy that
transports the reader to a new world of beauty. The
delicate and passionate flickerings of love with which
Sanskrit love poetry is surcharged, are as much exciting
INTRODUCTION CXX1X
to our primal tendencies as appealing to our cultured
tastes. Though much of Sanskrit poetry has been lost
through the ravages of time, yet what remains is
worthy of the pride and satisfaction of any great itation.
There is no compeer in the world of the Mahabhdrata
and the Ramayana taken together, and Kalidasa stands
supreme before our eyes as a magic-creator of beauty
and enchantment, and Bhavabhuti as the creator of the
sombre and the sublime.
CHAPTER I
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS
1. THE ORIGIN AND SOURCES OF THE KIVYA
Even if there is no direct evidence,1 it would not be entirely
unjustifiable to assume that the Sanskrit Kavya literature, highly
stylised though it is, had its origin in the two great Epics of
India. The Indian tradition, no doubt, distinguishes the
Itihasa from the Kavya, but it has always, not unjustly, regarded
the Ramayana, if not the MaMbharata, as the first of Kavyas.
1 This rapid survey is only an attempt to give, from the literary point of view only, and
from direct reading of the literature itself, a connected historical outline of a vast and
difficult subject. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, nor to supersede the excellent and
methodical presentations of Moritz Winternitz and Sten Konow, with their valuable
bibliographical material, as well as the brilliant accounts of Sylvain L6vi and A. B. Keith,
to all of which, as also to various monographs and articled of individual scholars, every
writer traversing the same ground must acknowledge his deep indebtedness. But the aim of
the present account is not to offer a mere antiquarian or statistical essay, not to record and
discuss what has been said on Sanskrit literature (the value of which, however, is not and
cannot be ignored), but to give, as concisely as possible, a systematic and literary account
of the literature itself. Even if strict chronology is not yet attainable, it should be recognised
that our general knowledge of the subject is not today so nebulous as to make the application
of historical or literary methods altogether impossible. It is felt that Sanskrit literature, as
literature, need no longer be looked upon as a literary curiosity, deserving merely a descriptive,
erudite, apologetic or condescending treatment, but that it ranks legitimately as one of the
great literatures of the world, to the appreciation of which broader historical and literary
standards should be applied. The bibliographical references and purely learned discussions,
which are available in their fulness elsewhere, are, therefore, reduced as much as possible to a
minimum, and emphasis has been laid upon the literary aspects of the problems, which have,
so far, not received adequate attention. Tt is cot claimed that the work is final in thia respect
but it is hoped that a beginning has been made. The only apology that is necessary,
apart from the obvious one of the writer's imperfect knowledge and capacity, is that it is
written within certain limits of time, which allowed less provision of material than what
could have been accomplished by longer preparation, and within certain limits of space,
which did not permit him to enter fully into some of the difficult, but interesting,
problems.
2 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
The Mahabharata certainly afforded, by its diversified content,
inexhaustible legendary and didactic material to later Kavya
poets; but from the point of view of form, it is simpler and less
polished, and conforms more to the epic standard. It could not,
in spite of later addition and elaboration, afford such an excellent
model for the factitious Kavya as the more balanced and poetical
Ramayana did. The unity of treatment, elegancies of style
and delicate verse-technique, which distinguish the Ramayana,
may not be studied, but they are none the less skilful and
effective. It is probable that some part of its stylistic elaboration
came into existence in later times, but there is nothing to show
that most of these refinements did not belong to the poem itself,
or to a date earlier than that of the Kavya literature, which
imitates and improves upon them. The literary standard and
atmosphere of the epic are indeed different from those of Amaru
and Kalidasa, but the poem, as a whole, grounded like the
Mahabharata as it is in the heroic epos, is undoubtedly the
product of a much more developed artistic sense.1 The pedestrian
naivete of the mere epic narrative is often lifted to the attractive
refinement of greater art ; and the general tone of seriousness
and gravity is often relieved by picturesque descriptions of the
rainy season and autumn, of mountains, rivers and forests, as
well as by sentimental and erotic passages and by the employ-
ment of metaphors and similes of beauty. If in the Kavya
greater importance is attached to the form, the Ramayana can
in a very real sense be called the first Kavya; and the literary
embellishment that we find in it in the skilled use of language,
metre and poetic figures is not wholly adventitious but forms an
integral part of its poetic expression, which anticipates the
more conscious ornamentation and finish of the later Kavya.
1 H. Jacobi, Das Ramayana^ Bonn, 183), pp. 119-26 and A. B. Keiib, History of Sanskrit
Literature, Oxford, 1928 (cited throughout below as USX), pp. 42-45, give some instances,
which can be easily multiplied, of the formal excellences of the Rawayana, which foreshadow
the Kavya. The Epics also show the transformation of the Vedic Anustubh into the Classical
Sloka, and of the Vedio Trisfcubh-Jagati into a variety of lyrical measures which are furtber
developed in the Kavya.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 3
There is no need, therefore, to trace back the origin of the
Kavya literature in the far-off Vedic hymns, and find its
prototype in the Narasamsa and Danastuti panegyrics, in the
semi-dramatic and impassioned Samvada-Akhyanas, in the
heightening of style found in the glowing descriptions of deities
like Usas, or in the legends and gnomic stanzas preserved in
the Brahmanas. The tradition of a non-religious literature was
already there from remote antiquity, surviving through long
centuries as a strong undercurrent and occasionally coming to
the surface in the more conventional literature ; but the imme-^
diate precursor of the Kavya is undoubtedly the Epics, which
themselves further develop these secular, and in a sense popular,
tendencies of the earlier Vedic literature.
It is also not necessary to seek the origin of the Sanskrit
Kavya literature in the hypothetical existence of a prior Prakrit
literature, on which it is alleged to have modelled itself. There
is indeed no convincing evidence, tradition or cogent reason to
support the theory that the Epics themselves or the Kavya were
originally composed in Prakrit and rendered later into Sanskrit.
The existence of a Prakrit period of literature preceding the
Sanskrit, which such theories presuppose, is inferred mainly from
the epigraphical use of Prakrit in the period preceding the
Christian era ; but it cannot be substantiated by the adducing of any
evidence of value regarding the existence of actual Prakrit works
in this period. Even assuming that a Prakrit literature existed,
the co-existence of a Sanskrit literature in some form is not
thereby excluded ; nor does it necessarily follow that the one
was derived from the other. It is possible to assume the
existence, from the Vedic times, of a popular secular literature,
current in a speech other than the hieratic, from which the
secular Vedic hymns derived their material ; and the tradition is
possibly continued in heroic songs, lyrical stanzas, gnomic verses
and folk-tales, which might have been composed in Prakrit ; but
the very language and treatment of the Epics themselves show a
stage of linguistic and literary development, in which a freer
4 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
and less polished, but more practical, form of Sanskrit than the
perfected speech of Panini was employed for conveying
a literature, not hieratic, but no less aristocratic. The influence
of a concurrent popular Prakrit literature may be presumed, but
the Epics, in form, substance and spirit, cannot be called popular
in the same sense ; they were loved by the populace, but in no
sense composed or inspired by them. They possess linguistic
and literary peculiarities of their own, which preclude the theory
of Prakrit originals, and which must be traced ultimately, in
unbroken tradition, to certain aspects of Vedic language and
literature, There is, again, no evidence to justify the high anti-
quity claimed for the collection of Prakrit folk-tales of Gunadhya,
which ifi now lost, or for the Prakrit lyrics of Hala, which have
been misleadingly taken as the prototype of the Sanskrit lyrics.
Not only does the Prakrit of Hala's anthology show a fairly deve-
loped form of the language, far apart from the Prakrits of the
early inscriptions and of the dramatic fragments of Agvaghosa,
but the Prakrit poetry which it typifies is as conventional as the
Sanskrit, and is not folk-literature in its true sense. Both the
Mahabharata and the Jatakas, again, show the currency of the
beast-fable, but in this sphere also we know nothing of any early
Prakrit achievement. Nor can it be shown that an original/
Prakrit drama was turned into Sanskrit; and our earliest speci-
mens of the Sanskrit drama in the A^vaghosa fragments, which
do not show it in a primitive tir rudimentary form, are already
written in Sanskrit, as well as in Prakrit.
The hypothesis of an earlier Prakrit literature started also
from the supposition that Sanskrit was little used until it was
recovered and restored sometime after the Christian era. The
theory is thus a revival in another form of Max Miiller's once
famous but now discredited suggestion l of the cessation of literary
1 India: What can it teach us ? (London, 1882), p. 281 f. It is mainly on the basis of
Fergusson's theory of the Vikrama era that Max Muller connected his suggestion with the
legend of a king Vikraraaditya of Ujjayini, who was supposed to have driven out the Sakaa
from India and founded the Vikrama era in 544 A.D., but dated the era back to 57 B.G* Max
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 5
activity in India until the sixth century A.D., when a Sanskrit
Renaissance was supposed to have begun. At a time when
scanty facts gave room for abundant fancies, the theory appeared
plausible ; it was apparently justified by the absence or paucity
of literary works before and after the Christian era, as well as by
the fact that the incursions of Greeks, Parthians, Kusanas and
Sakas at this time must have affected the north-west of India.
But the epigraphical and literary researches of Biihler, Kielhorn
and Fleet have now confirmed beyond doubt the indication, first
given by Lassen,1 regarding the development of the Sanskrit
Kavya-form in the first few centuries of the Christian era, and
have entirely destroyed Max Miiller's theory of a literary inter-
regnum. Biihler 's detailed examination2 of the evidence borne
by the early inscriptions, ranging from the second to the fifth
Miillor, however, had the sagacity to perceive that Fergusson's theory would at once collapse,
if any document were found dated in the Vikraraa era before 544 A.D. The missing evidence is
now foundf and both the assumptions mentioned above are now shown to be untenable (see
Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions, Introd. ; also I A, XXX, pp. 3-4). The Vikramaditya legend itself is
fairly old. It owed its currency, no doubt, from an ill-authenticated verse of a late work,
which associates Dhanvantari, K?apanaka, Amarasimha, Sanku, Vetalabhat^a, Ghafcakarpara,
Kalidasa, Varahatnihira and Vararuci as the nine gems of the court of this mythical king.
While we know for certain that Varahamihira flourished in the middle of tie sixth century,
Vararuci is undoubtedly a very old author to whom a Kavya is ascribed in Patafi jali'a
Mahabhasya', while of the other poets, some are mere names, and some, who are by no means
contemporaries, are lumped together, after the manner of works like Bhoja-prabandha, which
makes Kalidasa, Bana and Bhavabhuti contemporaries 1 On this verse and on Jyotirvidd-
bharana (16th century) in which it occurs, see Weber iii ZDMG, XXII, 1868, pp. 708 £ : aUo
iotrod. to Nandargikar's ed. of Raghu-vamsa for references to works where this verse is dis-
cussed. It is remarkable, however, that the tradition of a great Vikram&difcya as a patron of
the Kavya persists in literature. Subandhu laments that after the departure of Vikramaditya
there ia no true appreciator of poetry ; and an early reference in the same strain is found in a
verse of Hftla (ed. NSPt v. 64). The Sanskrit anthologies assign some 20 verses to Vikrama-
ditya, and he is associated with Bhartrmen^ha , Matrgupta and Kalidasa (see F. W, Thomas,
introd. to Kavlndra-vacana samuccaya, pp. 105-06 and references cited therein). There ia no
satisfactory evidence to connect him with the later Vikramadityas of the Gupta dynasty ; and
if the original founder of the Vikraraa era was a Vikramaditya, all search for him has, so far,
not proved succeasful. tfor a recent discussion of the question, see Edgerton, introd. to
Vikramacarita, pp. lviiMx\i.
1 Laasen, Indische Alterthumskundc, II, p. 115(J f.
* Die indiechen Inschriften und das Alter der mdiachen Kuntspoesie in SWAt 1890, trs,
I A, gtu,p.291.
6 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
century A.D., not only proves the existence in these centuries of
a highly elaborate body of Sanskrit prose and verse in the Kavya-
style, but it also raises the presumption that most of the Pra^asti-
writers were acquainted with ' some theory of poetic art/ If
Max Miiller conjectured a decline of literary activity in the first
two centuries of the Christian era on account of the incursions
of the Sakas, we know now that there is nothing to justify the
idea that the Western Ksatrapas or Satraps of Saka origin were
great destroyers. Their inscriptions show that they became
themselves rapidly Indian! sed, adopted Indian names and customs,
patronised Indian art and religion, and adopted, as early as
150 A. D., Sanskrit as their epigraphical language. There is,
therefore, no evidence for presuming a breach of literary
continuity from the first to the fifth century A.D. If the theory
is sometimes revived by the modified suggestion that the origin
of the Sanskrit Kavya is to be ascribed to the ascendancy of the
Sakas themselves, the discovery and publication of A^vaghosa's
works directly negative the idea by affording further proof of an
earlier bloom of the Sanskrit Kavya literature in some of its
important aspects, and perhaps push the period of its origin much
further back. The fact that a Buddhist poet should, at the
commencement of the Christian era, adopt the Sanskrit Kavya-
style for the avowed object 1 of conveying the tenets of his
faith, hitherto generally recorded in tbe vernacular, is itself an
indication of its popularity and diffusion; and the relatively
perfect form in which the Kavya emerges in his writings pre-
supposes a history behind it.
The history, unfortunately, is hidden from us. We can,
however, surmise its existence in some form in Panini's time in
the 4th century B.C.,2 if we consider that one of the direct results
1 As he declares at the close of his Saundarananda that his object in adopting the Kavya-
form is to set forth the truth which leads to salvation in an attractive garb, so that it should
appeal to all men.
3 Panini's time is uncertain, but we take here the generally accepted date, as also
P&taftjali's accepted date in relation to that of Pagini.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 7
of his elaborate grammar, as also its object, had been the
standardisation of Sanskrit, as distinguished from the Vedic
(Chandas) and the spoken dialect (Bhasa). Although Panini
shows himself fully conversant with the earlier Vedic literature,
there is no reason to suppose that the Sista speech of his day
was that of the priesthood alone ; his object was not to regulate
the hieratic speech but the language of polished expression in
general. Panini's own system, as well as his citation of the
views of different schools of grammar, shows that grammatical
studies must have been fairly well advanced in his time, and
presupposes the existence of a respectable body of literature on
which his linguistic speculations must have based themselves.
Nothing, unfortunately, has survived ; and this literature, which
must have been supplanted by the more mature writings of later
times, is now only a matter of surmise.
The evidence would have been more definite if any reliance
could be placed on the statement contained in a verse, ascribed
to Rajasekhara J in Jahlana's Sukti-muldavaU (1257 A.D.) that
Panini wrote " first the grammar and then the Kfivya, the
Jarnbavati-jaya." A fragment 2 from Panini's Jambavati-
vijaya is preserved by Rayarnukuta in his commentary on Amara-
l{o$a (1.2.3.6), which was composed in 1431 A.D. Much earlier
than this date, Nami-sadhu who wrote his commentary on
Rudrata's Kavyalamkara in 10G9 A.D.,'{ cites " from Panini's
Mahakavya, the Patala-vijaya," a fragment (samdhya-vadhu'ni
grhya karena) in illustration of the remark that great poets permit
1 svasti Paninaye tasmai yasya Rudra-prasddatah \ ddau vydkaranani. kdvyam anu
Jambavati-jayam \\ This RajasSekhara could not have been the Jaina BajaSekhara, who
wrote his Prabandha-kota in 1348 A.D. ; but it is not clear if he was the dramatist Rajagekhora,
who flourished during the end of the Oth and the beginning of the 10th i-entury ; for in the
latter'a Kavya-mlmatysd there are references <o Panioi's learned achievements but no mention
of him as a poet.
2 payah-prsantibhih spjstd vdnti vatah tanaih fanaili. Altogether Bfiyamukuta quotes
three fragments from Panini (Bbandarkar, Report, 1883-84, pp. 62, 479). Another quotation
from J&mbavati-jaya is given by Aufrecht in ZDMG> XLV, 1891, p. 308.
3 S. K. De, Sanskrit Poetics, I, p, 98.
8 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
themselves the licence of ungrammatical forms,1 and further gives,
as another example, a stanza " of the same poet " in which the
un-Paninian form apatyatl occurs.2 Both these Kavyas, ascribed
to Panini, are now lost, but their titles imply that they apparent-
ly dealt with Krsna's descent into the lower world and winning
of Jambavati as his bride. It is not clear, however, from these
separate and brief references, if they are two different works or
one work with two different names. The tradition of Panini's
poetical achievement is also recorded in an anonymous stanza
given in the Sadukti-karnamrta (1206 A.D.),8 while seventeen
verses, other than those mentioned above, are also found cited
in the Anthologies under the name of a poet PSnini,4 of which
the earliest citation appears to be a verse given in the Kavindra-
vacana-samuccaya 5 (about 1000 A.D.). Most of these verses are
in the fanciful vein and ornate diction, and some are distinctly
1 Ed. NSP, ad 2 fl : mahdkavindm apy apasabda-pdta-darsandt, Nami-sadhu also quotes
in the same context similar solecisms from the poems of Bhartrhari, Kalid&sa and Bhai wi.
2 gate'rdha-rdtre parimanda-mandam garjanti yat prdvjsi kdla*meglidh \
apafyati vatsam ivendu-bimbam tac charvari gaur iva hutpkaroti j|
3 5.26.5, which extols Bhavabhuti along with Subandhu, Kaghukara (KalidSsa),
Dftks^putra (Panini), Haricandra, Sura and Bbaravi.
* The Anthology verses are collected together and translated by Aufrecht in ZDMG,
XIV, p. 581f ; XXVII, p. 46f ; XXXVI, p. 365f ; XLV, p. 308f. They are also given by Peter-
son, introd. to Subhasitdvalit pp. 54-58 and JRAS, 1891, pp. 311-19, and more fully by F. W.
Thomas, Kavmdravacana* , introd., pp. 51-53. Also see Aufrecht in ZDMQ, XXVIII, p. 113, for
quotations by Bayamuku$a.— The following abbreviations will be used for the Anthologies cited
below : #t?s=Kavfndra-vacana-samuccaya, ed F. W. Thomas, Bibl. Ind., Calcutta, 1912;
SP=Sarngadhara-paddbati, ed. P. Peterson, Bombay, 1888; 567ifl = 8ubhasitavali of Vallabha-
deva, ed. P. Peterson, Bombay, 1886; <SW=Sukti-rnukt5vali of Jahlana, ed. Gaekwad's Orient.
Series, Baroda, 1939 ; fl/rw^Saduktikanpamrtn, ed. B. Sarma and H. Sarma, Lahore, 1933;
Pdr«PadyavalT, ed. S. K. De, Dacca, 1934.
6 No. 186, tanvangmam stanaii dr$tva. As it will be clear from the concordance given
by Thomas, the ascription in the Anthologies is not uniform. The Sbhv gives nine verses, of
which two only (upodha-ragena and ksapah, ksamlkrtya) are ascribed by SP. The Skm gives
8 verses including iipodha-ragena; while Sml assigns this verse, as well as ksapah kfamikrtya,
which last verse is given also by Sbhv and SP but which is anonymous in Kvs and ascribed
to Ofpkai}$ha in Skm. The verses panau padma-dhiyd and panau fana-tale are assigned to
PS^ini in Skm, but they are anonymous in Kvs, while the first verse is sometimes ascribed
to Acala. Some of these verses are quoted in the Alamkara works, but always anonymously,
the oldest citations being those by Vamana ad IV. 3 (aindrani dhanufy) and Inandavardhana,
p. 35 (upodha-rdcjena).
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 9
erotic in theme. Among the metres employed we have one verse
in Sikharim, two in Sloka, two in Sardulavikrldita, three in
Sragdhara, three in Vam^asthavila and six in Upajati. It is
noteworthy that Ksemendra, in his Suvrtta-tilaka (iii. 30), tells
us in the llth century that Panini excelled in composing verses
intheUpaiati metre1; and we find that, besides the six Anthology
verses, both the verses quoted by Nami-sadhu, as well as two out
of the three fragments given by Rayamukuta, are in the Upajati.
Aufrecht, who first drew attention to the existence of
a poet named Panini, remarked that we did not as yet know
of more than one author of that name ; and the question
whether, despite the rarity of the name, we can assume the
existence of more than one Panini has not, in the interval,
advanced much beyond that stage. As the Indian tradition,
however, knows only of one Panini who wrote the famous
grammar and \vhom it does not distinguish from the poet Panini,
it has been maintained that the grammarian and the poet are
identical. 2 While admitting that the evidence adduced is late,
and that the ascription in the Anthologies, being notoriously
careless, should not be taken as conclusive, one cannot yet lose
sight of the fact that the tradition recorded from the llth century,
independently by various writers, makes no distinction between
Panini the grammarian and Panini the poet. The genuineness
of the Anthology verses may well be doubted, but the naming of
the two poems, from which verses are actually quoted, cannot be
so easily brushed aside. The silence of grammarians from
1 AB, we are told further, Kalidaaa ia Mandakranta, Bhavabhuti in SikharinT,
Bh&ravi in VarpSasthavila, Ratnakara in Vasantatilaka, and Rajagekhara in Sardulavikridita,
etc. The preponderance of Upajati in As*vaghos.a's Buddlia-carita (ed. E. H. Johnston, Pt. II,
p. Ixvi) undoubtedly indicates its early popularity, attested also by its adoption by Kalidasa io
his two poems.
* Tn the works and articles of Peterson cited above. Pischel, in ZDM G, XXXIX, 1885, p.
95f believes in the identity, but he makes it the ground of placing Panini at about the fifth
century A.D. ; Biihler, however, rightly points out (I A, XV, 1886, p. 241) that " if the gram-
marian P&nini did write a Kavya, it does not follow that he should be supposed to live in
the 4th or 6th century A.D. ; the Kavya literature is much older.1'
2- 1348B
10 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Patafijali downwards is a negative argument 1 which proves
nothing, while the least valid of all objections is that the
Sanskrit of the poems could not have been the Sanskrit of Panini,
or that Panini could not have used such ungrainmatical forms as
grhya and apatyatl in defiance of his own rules (vii. i. 37, 81).
The occurrence of such archaisms, which are not rare in old
poets,2 is itself a strong indication of the antiquity of the poem or
poems; and when we consider that only two centuries later
Patafijali refers to a Kavya by Vararuci, who was also perhaps
a grammarian-poet, 8 and quotes fragments of verses composed in
the same ornate manner and diction, the argument that the
language of the poems is comparatively modern and could not
have been that of Panini loses much of its force. In the absence
of further decisive evidence, however, the question must be
regarded as open ; but nothing convincing has so far been
adduced which would prove that the grammarian could not have
composed a regular Kavya.
The literary evidence furnished by the quotations and
references in Patanjali's Mahabhasya, which show that the
Sanskrit Kavya in some of its recognised forms flourished in the
2nd century B.C., 4 gives us the first definite indication regard-
ing its early origin and development. Patafijali directly
mentions a "Vararuca Kavya (ad h.3.101), 5 although, un-
1 R. G. Bhandarkar in JBRAS, XVI, p. 344.
4 These archaisms are authenticated by the Epics, by As*vaghosa and by what Pataft;ali
Bays about poetic licence. Narni-sidhu, as noted above, rightly points out that such irregular
forms are not rare even in later poets, The frdgtn2nts quoted by ilayamukut i and Narni-
sld m have undoubtedly the appearance of bsing old. Some of the Anthology verses contain
instances of 1e:lio difficilior, which have been discussad by B5'itlingk in ZDMG, XXXVT, p
659.
3 Besides Vararuci, whose verses have been cited in the Anthologies (Peterson, introd. to
56 Jit? p. 103; Skm, introd., pp. 105-07), we hive similar verses ascribe J to Bhartrbari (see
Peterson in Sbhv, introd., p. 74; Skm, iutrod., p. 82) and Vya^i (Skm, V. 82.2;.
* On the question of Patafifali's date, which is still uncertain, see Keith, India Office Cat.
o/ MSSt II, p. 2l8f.
& One o! Rajas*ekharaf8 verses in the Sukti mukiGvaH tells us that the name of Vararuci 's
poem was Kan(babharana. Vararuci is one of the mysterious figures of early Sanskrit
literature. He is sometimes identified with the V&rttikakara Katyayana and extolled as one
of the nine gems of the court of on equally mysterious Vikramadilya. To him a monologue-
OtWGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 11
fortunately, he supplies no further information about it. He
refers to poetic licence, which was apparently not rare in his day,
with the remark : chandovnt kavayah kurvanti (ad i.4.3). He
appears to know various forms of the Kavya literature other than
poetry, although from his tantalisingly brief references or frag-
mentary quotations it is not always possible to determine in what
exact form they were known to him. Like Panini, Patanjali
knows the Bharata epic and refers to Granthikas, who were
probably professional reciters. Tales about Yavakrita, Priyarigu
and Yayati were current; and commenting on Katyayana's
oldest mention of the Akhyayika, 1 which alluded not to narrative
episodes found in the Epics but to independent works, Patanjali
gives the names of three Akhyayikas, namely, Vasavadatta,
Bumanottara and Bhaimarathl. But, unfortunately, we have no
details regarding their form and content. In an obscure passage
(ad iii. 1.2G), over the interpretation of which there has been
much difference of opinion, 2 a reference is made to some kind of
entertainment — possibly dramatic — in which a class of enter-
tainers called Saubhikas carry out, apparently by means of vivid
action, the killing of Kamsa and the binding of Bali. Greater
interest attaches to some forty quotations, mostly metrical, but
often given in fragments, in which one can find eulogistic, erotic
or gnomic themes in the approved style and language of the
Kavya. The metres in which they are conveyed are no longer
play, entitled Ubhayabhisarika, is attributed, as well a3 a lost work called Carumati, which was
apparently a romauce. He is vaguely referred to as an authority on the Aiamkara-s'a'atra (S. If.
De, Sanskrit Poetics, I, p. 70) and regarded as the author of a Prakrit Grammar (Prakfta-
prakata), of a work on grammatical gender (Lihgdnu£a$ana)t of a collection of gnomic stanzas
(Niti-ratna) and even of an eastern version of the collection of folk-tales known as Sinihasana*
dvdtrirtisikd. Apparently, be was me of the far-off apocryphal authors of traditional repute on
whom all anooyma could be conveniently lumped.
1 Varttika on Pa,, iv.3.87 and iv.2.60. Also see Patafi;ali, ed. Kielhorn, II, p. 284.
Katyayana knows a work named Daiv&suram, dealing apparently with the story of the war of
gods and demons.
2 Ed. Kielhorn, II, p. 36. See Weber in Ind> St., XIII, p. 488f ; Liiders in SB AW, 1916,
p. C98f ; L6vi ia ThMtre tnd.,I, p. 315; Hillebrandb in ZDMG, LXXU, p. 227f; Keith io
BSOS, I, Pt. 4, p. 27f and Sanskrit Drama, Oxford, 1924, p. fclf.
12 HISTORY OF SANSKK1T LITERATURE
Vedic, but we have, besides the classical Sloka, fragments of
stanzas in Malati, Praharsim, VamSasthavila, Vasantatilaka,
Pramitaksara, Tndravajra or Upendravajra. In addition to this,
there are about 260 scattered verses * treating of grammatical
matters (sometimes called Sloka-varttikas), which employ, besides
the normal gloka, Arya, Vaktra and some irregular Tristubh-
Jagatl metres, such ornate lyrical measures as Vidyunmala
(3 stanzas), Samani, Indravajra and Upendravajra (7 stanzas),
SalinI (4 stanzas), Vamsasthavila, Dodhaka (12 stanzas) and
Totaka (2 stanzas).
This early evolution of lyrical measures, multitude of which
is systematically defined and classified in the earliest known
work on Prosody, attributed to Pingala, 2 takes us beyond the
sphere of the Vedic and Epic metrical systems. The Epic poets,
generally less sensitive to delicate rhythmic effects, preferred
metres in which long series of stanzas could be composed with
ease ; but the metrical variation in lyric and sentimental poetry,
which had love for its principal theme, accounts for the large
number of lyric metres which came into existence in the
classical period. Some of the new metres derive their names
from their characteristic form or movement : such as, Druta-
vilambita ' fast and slow,' VegavatI ' of impetuous motion/
Mandakranta ' stepping slowly,' Tvaritagati ' quickly moving ' ;
some are named after plants and flowers: Mala 'garland/
Mafijari ' blossom ' ; some are called after the sound and
habit of animals, Sardula-vikrldita ' play of the tiger/ A£va-
lalita ' gait of the horse/ Harini-pluta ' leap of the deer/
Hamsa-ruta ' cackling of the geese/ Bhramara-vilasita ' sportive-
ness of the bees,' Gaja-gati * motion of elephant ' ; but it
is also remarkable that the names given to a very large number
1 Kielhorn in lAt XV, 1886, p. 228 ; also 1A t XIV, pp. 326-27.
8 M. Ghosh in IHQ, VII, 1931, p. 724f, maintains that the parts dealing with the
.Vcdic and classical metres respectively cannot be attributed to the same auth<r, &nd that
the Vedio part should be assigned to circa 600 B.C.; D, C Sarcar, in Ind. Culture, VI,
pp. 110f,274, believes that the classical part cannot be placed earlier than the 5th century A.D.
OB1GINS AN ft CHARACTERISTICS 13
of metres are epithets of fair maidens : Tanvi ' slender-limbed/
Kucira ' dainty/ Pramada ' handsome/ Pramitaksara ' a
maiden of measured words/ Manjubhasini ' a maiden of charm-
ing speech/ SaSivadana ' moonfaced/ Citralekha * a maiden of
beautiful outlines/ Vidyunmrila * chain of lightning/ Kanaka-
prabha ' radiance of gold/ Cfiruhasin! ' sweetly smiling/ Kunda-
danti ' a maiden of budlike teeth/ Vasantatilaka ' decora-
tion of spring/ Cancalaksi ' a maiden of tremulous glances/
Sragdhara 'a maiden with a garland/ and Kantotpkla ' plague
of her lovers ' ! The names mentioned above undoubtedly
indicate a more developed and delicate sense of rhythmic forms.
The names of fair maidens, however, need not be taken as
having actually occurred in poems originally composed in their
honour by diverse poets, but they certainly point to an original
connexion of these Jyric metres with erotic themes ; and Jacobi
is right in suggesting ] that they had their origin in the Sanskrit
Kavya poetry of a pre-Christian era, from which the Maharastri
lyric also had its impetus and inspiration.
The difficulty of arriving at an exact conclusion regarding
the origin and development of the Kavya arises from the fact
that all the Kavya literature between Patanjali and Asvaghosa
has now disappeared ; and we cannot confidently assign any
of the Kavyas, which have come down to us, to the period
between the 2nd century B.C. and the 1st or 2nd century A.D.
We have thus absolutely no knowledge of the formative period
of Sanskrit literature. The Kavya does not indeed emerge in
a definite and self-conscious form until we come to Asvaghosa,
the first known Kavya-poet of eminence, who is made a contem-
porary of Kaniska by both Chinese and Tibetan traditions, and
who can be placed even on independent grounds " between
50 B.C. and 100 A.D. with a preference to the first half of the
first century A.D." 2 An examination of Asvaghosa's works,
1 in ZDMG, XXXVIII, pp. 616-17.
2 See Buddha-carita, ed. E. H. Johnston (Calcutta, 1936), Pfc. II, iutrod., pp. xiii-xviJ
14 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
however, shows * that although they are free from the later
device of overgrown compounds, they betray an unmistakable
knowledge, even in a somewhat rough and primitive form, of
the laws of Kavya poetry, by their skill in the use of classical
metres,2 by their handling of similes and other rhetorical figures,
and by their growing employment of the stanza as a separate
unit of expression.
A little later, we have a fairly extensive Sanskrit inscription,
carved on a rock at Girnar, of Mahaksatrapa Rudradaman,3
celebrating an event of about 150 A.D. and composed in the
ornate Sanskrit prose familiar to us from the Kavya. The
literary merit of this Prasasti cannot be reckoned very high,
but it is important as one of the earliest definite instances of
high-flown Sanskrit prose composition. The inscription contains
a reference to the king's skill in the composition of " prose and
verse embellished and elevated by verbal conventions, which
are clear, light, pleasant, varied and charming/' 4 Making
allowance for heightened statement not unusual in mscriptional
panegyric, the reference can be taken as an interesting evidence
of the early interest in Sanskrit culture evinced even by a king
of foreign extraction. One can also see in the reference at
least the author's, if not his patron's, acquaintance with some
form of poetic art which prescribed poetic embellishment (Alam-
kara) and conventional adjustment of words (Sabda-samaya),
involving the employment of such excellences as clearness, light-
on the d<*te of Kaniska a summary of the divergent views, with full references, is given by
Winternitz, History of Indian Literature (referred to below as H!L)t II, Calcutta, 1983,
pp 611*11. The limits of divergence are now no longer very large, and the date 100 A,D.
would be a rough but not unjust estimate.
1 E. H. Johnston, op. cit.t pp. Ixiii f.
8 Among the metres used (besides classical Anustubh) are Upa;'Sti, Vams'asthavila,
Rucira, PrahirsinT, Vasantatilaka, Malinl, Sikharini, SardulavikrTdita, Suvadanft, Viyogint
or SuodarT, Aup ccbandasika, Vaitalfya, PufjpitS^ra, and even unknown metres like $arabh&,
and rare and difficult ones like Kusnmalatavellita (called Citralekhft by Bharata), Udgata and
Upaathitopracupita.
3 El, VIII, p. 36f.
* sphuta-laghu-madhura-citra-jkanta sabda&amayodaT&laipkrta>gadya padya*.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 15
ness, sweetness, variety, charm and elevation. It is notable
that the composition itself is not free from archaisms like
patina (for patya), Prakritisms like vUaduttarani (for vimhd-) or
irregular construction like anyatra samgramesu ; but in respect
of the employment of long sentences and sonorous compounds, of
poetic figures like simile and alliteration, and of other literary
devices, it exemplifies some of the distinctive characteristics of
the Sanskrit Kavya. TheNasik inscription of Siri Pulumayi1
also belongs to the 2nd century A.D. and exhibits similar features,
but it is composed in Prakrit, apparently by one who was familiar
with Sanskrit models.
Not very far perhaps in time from A^vaghosa flourished the
Buddhist writers, Matrceta, Kumaralata and Arya Sura, whose
works, so far as they have been recovered, afford conclusive
evidence of the establishment of the Kavya style. To the third
or fourth century A.D. is also assigned the Tantrakhyayika,
which is the earliest known form of the Pancatantra ; and the
oldest ingredients of the Sattasal of Hala and the Brhatkatha of
of Gunadhya also belong probably to this period. It would also
be not wrong to assume that the sciences of Erotics and Drama-
turgy, typified by the works of Vatsyayana and Bharata, took
shape during this time ; and, though we do not possess any very
early treatise on Poetics, the unknown beginnings of the disci-
pline are to be sought also in this period, which saw the growth
of the factitious Kavya. The Artha-£ustra of Kautilya is placed
somewhat earlier, but the development of political and administra-
tive ideas must have proceeded apace with the growth of material
prosperity and with the predominance of an entirely secular
literature.
We have, however, no historical authority for the date of any
of these works, nor of the great Kavya-poets, until we come
to the Aihole inscription of 634 A.D.,2 which mentions Bharavi,
1 Elt VIII, p. COf.
? #/, vi, p. if.
16 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
along with Kalidasa, as poets of established reputation. Kali-
dasa, however, speaking modestly of himself at the commence-
ment of his Malavikagnimitra, mentions Bhasa, Somila (or
Saumilla) and Kaviputra as predecessors whose works might
delay the appreciation of his own drama , Although agree-
ment has not yet been reached about the authenticity of the
Trivandrum dramas ascribed to Bhasa, there cannot be any
doubt that a dramatist Bhasa attained, even in this early period,
a reputation high enough to be eulogised by Kfilidasa, and later
on by Banabhatta. Of Somila we know from Bajasekhara1
that he was the joint author, with Ramila,2 of a 8iidraka-katha,
which is now lost ; and only one verse of theirs is preserved by
Jahlana (59. 35) and Sanigadhara (No. 3822) in their antho-
logies.8 Of Kaviputra also, who is cited in the dual, we have
nothing but one verse only, given in the Subhasitavali (No. 2227),
but the verse now stands in Bhartrhari's tfatakas (Snigara0,
st. 3)
A definite landmark, however, is supplied by the Harsa-carita
of Banabhatta who, as a contemporary of King Harsavardhana
of Thaneswar and Kanauj, belonged to the first half of the 7th
century A.D., and who, in the preface to this work, pays homage
to some of his distinguished predecessors. Besides an un-
named author of a Vasavadatta, who may or may not be
Subandhu, he mentions Bhattara Haricandra who wrote an
unnamed prose work, Satavahana who compiled an anthology,
Pravarasena whose fame travelled beyond the seas by his Setu
(-bandha), Bhasa who composed some distinctive dramas, Kali-
dasa whose flower-like honied words ever bring delight, the
author of the Brhat-hatha, and Adhyaraja. Of Bhattara
1 tan Sudrdkahatha-karau vandyau Ramila-Somilau \ ynyor dvayoh Itavyam asld ardlia-
ndrttvaropaman II , cited in Jahlapa, op cit.
2 One \erseunderIUruilakai8givenby Sbhv, No. 1698. The Sudraka-hatha is men-
tioned and quoted by Bhoja in bis Srhgard'prakatia ; ibe name of the heroine is given as
Vinayavati.
3 Tlie stanza, bowever, is given anonymously in Kvs (No. 473) and attributed to
K&ia&kbara in Ston (ii. 86. 6).
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 17
Haricandra2and Adhyaraja1 we know nothing; but it is clear
that the fame of the remaining well known authors must
have been wide-spread by the 7th century A,D. Although the
respective dates of these works and authors cannot be fixed with
certainty, it can be assumed from Banabhatta's enumeration that
the period preceding him formed one of the most distinguished
epochs of Kavya literature, the development of which probably
proceeded apace with the flourishing of Sanskrit culture under the
Gupta emperors in the 4th and 5th centuries of the Christian
era.
This conclusion receives confirmation from the wide culti-
vation of the Kavya form of prose and verse in the inscrip-
tional records of this period, of which not less than fifteen
specimens of importance will be found in the third volume of
Fleet's Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum* Their Kavya-features
and importance in literary history have long since been ably
discussed by Biihler.4 His detailed examination not only proves
the existence of a body of elaborate prose and metrical writings
in Kavya-style during these centuries, but also shows that the
manner in which these Prasasti-writers conform to the rules
of Alamkara, crystallised later in the oldest available treatises
like those of Bhainaha and Dandin, would establish the
presumption of their acquaintance with some rules of Sanskrit
1 Most scholars have accepted Pischel's contention (Nachrichten d. kgl. GeselUchaft d.
Wissenschaften Gottingen, 1901, p. 486 f.) that the word ddhyardja in st. 18 is not a
proper name of any poet but refers to the poet's patron King Harsa himself. Bat the verse
has difficulties of interpretation, for which see F. W. Thomas and others in JRAS, 1903,
p. 803; 1904, p. 155 f., 366, 544; 1905, p. 569 f. We also know from a stanza quoted in the
Sarasvatt-kanthabharana that there was a Prakrit poet named Adhyaraja, who is mentioned
along with Sahasftfika; the commentary, however, explaining in a facile way that Adhyaraja
stands for Sftlivahana and Sahas&nka for Vikrama !
* He is certainly not the Jaina Haricandra, author of the much later Dharma£armabhyu-
daya which gives a dull account of the saint Dharmanatha (ed. N8P, Bombay, 1899). Our
Haricandra is apparently mentioned in a list of great poets in Skm (5. 26. 5), and quoted in
the anthologies.
3 Calcutta, 1888. Some of these inscriptional records will be found in a convenient
form in DevanSgarl in D. B. Diskalkar's Selections from Inscriptions, Vol. I (Eajkol, 1925),
* In Die indischen Inschriftin, cited above.
-1343B
18 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
poetics.. The most interesting of these inscriptions is the
panegyric of Samudragupta by Harisena, engraved on a
pillar at Allahabad (about 350 A.D.), which commences with
eight stanzas (some fragmentary) describing vividly the death of
Candragupta I and accession of his son Samudragupta, then
passes over to one long sonorous prose sentence and winds up
with an eulogistic stanza, — all composed in the best manner of
the Kavya. Likewise remarkable is the inscription of Virasena,
the minister of Candragupta II, Samudragupta' s successor.
Some importance attaches also to the inscription of Vatsabhatti^
which consists of a series of 44 stanzas celebrating (in 473 A.D.)
the consecration of a Sun-temple at Dagapura (Mandasor), from
the fact that the poetaster is alleged to have taken Kalidasa as
his model ; but the literary merit of this laboured composition
need not be exaggerated.
2. THE ENVIRONMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KAVYA
It is noteworthy that in Harisena' s Pra&isti, Samudragupta
is mentioned not only as a friend and patron of poets but as a
poet himself, who like Kudradaman before him, composed poems
of distinction enough to win for himself tbe title of Kaviraja or
king of poets.1 Amiable flattery it may be^ but the point is
important ; for, the tradition of royal authors, as well as of royal
patrons of authors, continues throughout the history of Sanskrit
literature. The very existence of rdyal inscriptions written in
Kavya-style, as well as the form, content and general outlook
of the Kavya literature itself indicates its close connexion with
the courts of princes, and explains the association of Agvaghosa
with Kaniska, of Kalidasa with a Vikramaditya, or of Bana-
bhatta with Harsavardhana. The royal recognition not only
brought wealth and fame to the poets, but also some leisure for
i For other examples of poet-kings see 'introduction to the edition of Priyadartika bj
Nsriman, Jackon and Ogden, pp. xxxv-xxxix.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 10
serious composition. In his Kavya-mimamsa R5ja£ekhara
speaks of literary assemblies held by kings for examination of
works and reward of merit ; and even if we do not put faith in
this or in the unhistorical pictures of poetical contests at royal
courts given in the Bhoja-prabandha and Prabandha-cintdmaniz
a vivid account is furnished by Maftkha in his Srlkanlha-carita
(Canto XV) of one such assembly actually held by a minister of
Jayasimha of Kashmir towards the middle of the 12th century.
As a matter of fact, the Kavya literature appears to have been
aristocratic from the beginning, fostered under the patronage of
the wealthy or in the courts of the princes. Even if it does not
lack serious interest, this literature naturally reflects the graces,
as well as the artificialities, of courtly life ; and its exuberant
fancy is quite in keeping with the taste which prevailed in this
atmosphere. The court-influence undoubtedly went a long way,
not only in fostering a certain langour and luxuriance of style,
but also in encouraging a marked preference of what catches the
the eye to what touches the heart.
In order to appreciate the Kavya, therefore, it is necessary
to realise the condition under which it was produced and the
environment in which it flourished. The pessimism of the
Buddhistic ideal gradually disappeared^ having been replaced by
more accommodating views about the value of pleasure. Even
the Buddhist author of the Nagdnanda does not disdain to weave
a love-theme into his lofty story of Jimutavahana's self-sacrifice ;
and in his opening benedictory stanza he does not hesitate to
represent the Buddha as being rallied upon his hard-heartedness
by the ladies of Mara's train.1 From Patanjali's references we
find that from its very dawn love is established as one of the
dominant themes of the Kavya poetry.2 The Buddhist conception
1 A similar verse with openly erotic imagery is ascribed to A6vaghos.a in Kvs No. 2.
2 One fragment, at least, of a stanza is clearly erotic in subject in its description of the
morning : varatanu sarypravadanti hukkutah "0 fair-limbed one, the cocks unite to proclaim ".
The full verse is fortunately supplied twelve centuries later by Ks.emendra, who quotes it In
his Aucitya-vicara but attributes it, wrongly to KumSradasa.
20 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
of the love-god as Mara or Death gives way to that of the flower-
arrowed deity, who is anticipated in the Atharva-veda and is
established in the Epics, but whose appearance, names and
personality are revived and developed in the fullest measure in
the Kavya. The widely diffused Kavya manner and its prevail-
ing love-interest invade even the domain of technical sciences ;
and it is remarkable that the mathematician Bbaskaragupta not
only uses elegant metres in his Lllavatl but presents his algebrai-
cal theorems in the form of problems explained to a fair maiden,
of which the phraseology and imagery are drawn from the bees,
flowers and other familiar objects of Kavya poetry. The celebra-
tion of festivals with pomp and grandeur, the amusements of
the court and the people, the sports in water, the game of
swing, the plucking of flowers, song, dance, music, dramatic
performances and other diversions, elaborate description of which
forms the stock-in-trade of most Kavya-poets, bear witness not
only to this new sense of life but also to the general demand for
refinement, beauty and luxury. The people are capable of
enjoying the good things of this world, while heartily believing
in the next. If pleasure with refinement is sought for in life,
pleasure with elegance is demanded in art. It is natural, there-
fore, that the poetry of this period pleases us more than it moves;
for life is seldom envisaged in its infinite depth and poignancy, or
in its sublime heights of imaginative fervour, but is generally
conceived in its playful moods of vivid enjoyment breaking
forth into delicate little cameos of thought or fancy.
The dominant love-motif of the Kavya is thus explained by
the social environment in which it grows and from which alone
it can obtain recognition . It is, however, not court-life alone
which inspires this literature. At the centre of it stands the
Nagaraka, the polished man about town, whose culture, tastes
and habits so largely mould this literature that he may be taken
to be as typical of it as the priest or the philosopher is of the
literature of the Brahmanas or the Upani^ads.1 Apart from the
1 H. Qldenberg, Die Literal™ des aUen Indien, Stuttgart und Berlin, 1908, pp. 198 f.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 21
picture we get of him in the literature itself, we have a vivid
sketch of an early prototype of the Nagaraka in the Kama-sutra
or Aphorism of Erotics, attributed to Vatsyayana. We are told
that the well planned house of the Nagaraka is situated near a
river or tank and surrounded by a lovely garden; in the garden
there are, for amusement or repose, a summer house, a bower of
creepers with raised parterre, and a carpeted swing in a shady
spot. His living room, balmy with perfume, contains a bed,
soft, white, fragrant and luxuriously furnished with pillows or
cushions. There is also a couch, with a kind of stool at the head,
on which are placed pigments, perfumes, garlands, bark of citron^
canvas and a box of paint, A lute hanging from an ivory peg
and a few books are also not forgotten. On the ground there is a
spittoon, and not far from the couch a round seat with raised
back and a board for dice. The Nagaraka spends his morning in
bathing and elaborate toilet, applying ointments and perfumes to
his body, collyriuin to his eyes and red paint to his lips, chewing
betel leaves and citron-bark to add fragrance to his mouth, and
looking at himself in the glass. After breakfast he listens to
his parrots, kept in a cage outside his room, witnesses ram and
cock fights and takes part in other diversions which he enjoys
with his friends and companions. After a brief midday sleep, he
dresses again, and joins his friends ; and in the evening there
is music, followed by joys of love. These are the habitual
pleasures of the Nagaraka, but there are also occasional rounds of
enjoyment, consisting of festivals, drinking parties, plays, con-
certs, picnics in groves, excursions to parks or water-sports in
lakes and rivers. There are also social gatherings, often held in
the house of the ladies of the demi-monde, where assemble men
of wit and talent, and where artistic and poetic topics are freely
discussed. The part played by the accomplished courtesan in the
polished society of the time is indeed remarkable ; and judging
from Vasantasena,1 it must be said that in ancient India of this
1 Also the picture of Kamamafijari in Ucchvasa II of Darin's romance; she if a
typical couxteian, but highly accomplished and e due tied.
22
HISTORY OF SANSERIF LITERATURE
period, as in the Athens of Perikles, her wealth, beauty and
power, as well as her literary and artistic tastes, assured for her
an important social position. She already appears as a character
in the fragment of an early Sanskrit play discovered in Central
Asia, and it is not strange that Sudraka should take her as the
heroine of his well known drama; for her presence and position
must have offered an opportunity, which is otherwise denied to
the Sanskrit dramatist (except through a legendary medium) of
depicting romantic love between persons free and independent.
The picture of the Nagaraka and his lady-friend, as we have it in
literature, is undoubtedly heightened, and there is a great deal of
the dandy and the dilettante in the society which they frequent;
but we need not doubt that there is also much genuine culture,
character and refinement. In later times, the Nagaraka degene-
rates into a professional amourist, but originally he is depicted as
a perfect man of the world, rich and cultivated, as well as witty,
polished and skilled in the arts, who can appreciate poetry,
painting and music, discuss delicate problems in the doctrine of
love and has an extensive experience of human, especially femi-
nine, character.
The science of Erotics, thus, exercised a profound influence
on the theory and practice of the poetry of this period. The
standard work of Vatsyayana contains, besides several chapters on
the art and practice of love, sections on the ways and means of
winning and keeping a lover, on courtship and signs of love, on
marriage and conduct of married life, and not a little on the
practical psychology of the emotion of love. On the last men-
tioned topic the science of Poetics, as embodied particularly in
the specialised works on the erotic Rasa, went hand in hand; and
it is almost impossible to appreciate fully the merits, as well as
the defects, of Sanskrit love-poetry without some knowledge of
the habits, modes of thought, literary traditions and fundamental
poetical postulates recorded in these Sastras, the mere allusion to
one of which is enough to call up some familiar idea or touch
some inner chord of sentiment. There is much in these treatises
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS ' 23
which gives us an idealised or fanciful picture ; and the existence
of the people of whom they speak was just as little a prolonged
debauch as a prolonged idyll. There is also a great deal of scho-
lastic formalism which loves subtleties and minutiae of classifica-
tion. At the same time, the works bear witness to a considerable
power of observation, and succeed in presenting a skilful and
elaborate analysis of the erotic emotion, the theory of which came
to have an intimate bearing on the practice of the poets.
In this connexion a reference should be made to an aspect
of Sanskrit love-poetry which has been often condemned as too
sensual or gross, namely, its highly intimate description of the
beauty of the feminine form and the delights of dalliance, as
well as its daring indelicacies of expression. It should be recog-
nised that much of this frankness is conventional ; the Sanskrit
poet is expected to show his skill and knowledge of the Kama-
3astra by his minute and highly flavoured descriptions. But the
excuse of convention cannot altogether condone the finical yet
flaunting sensuality of the elaborate picture of love-sports, such
as we find in Bharavi, Magha and their many followers (includ-
ing the composers of later Bhanas) and such as are admitted by
a developed but deplorable taste. Even the Indian critics, who
are not ordinarily squeamish, are not sparing in their condemna-
tion of some of these passages, and take even Kalidasa to task
for depicting the love-adventures of the divine pair in his
Kumara-sambhava. A distinction, however, must be drawn
between this conventional, but polished, and perhaps all the more
regrettable, indecency of decadent poets, on the one band, and
the exasperatingly authentic and even blunt audacities of expres-
sion, on the other, with which old-time authors season their
erotic compositions. What the latter-day poets lack is the naive
exuberance or bonhomie of their predecessors, their easy and
frank expression of physical affection in its exceedingly human
aspect, and their sincere realisation of primal sensations, which
are naturally gross or grotesque being nearer to life. It would
be unjust a»d canting prudery to condemn these simpler moods
24 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
of passion and their direct expression, unless they are meaning-
lessly vulgar. The point is too often forgotten that what we
have here is not the love which dies in dreams, or revels in the
mystic adoration of a phantom-woman. It does not talk about
ideals and gates of heaven but walks on the earth and speaks of
the passionate hunger of the body and the exquisite intoxication
of the senses. The poets undoubtedly put a large emphasis on
the body, and love appears more as self-fulfilment than as self-
abnegation ; but in this preference of the body there is nothing
debasing or prurient. The essential realism of passion, which
cannot live on abstraction but must have actualities to feed upon,
does not absolve a truly passionate poet from the contact of the
senses and touch of the earth ; but from this, his poetry springs
Antaeus-like into fuller being. Modern taste may, with reason,
deprecate the intimate description of personal beauty and delights
of love in later Sanskrit poetry, but even here it must be clearly
understood that there is very seldom any ignoble motive behind
its conventional sensuousness, that there is no evidence of
delight in uncleanness, and that it always conforms to the
standard of artistic beauty. Comparing Sanskrit poetry with
European classical literature in this respect, a Western critic
very rightly remarks that " there is all the world of difference
between what we find in the great poets of India and the frank
delight of Martial and Petronius in their descriptions of immoral
scenes." The code of propriety as well as of prudery differs
with different people, but the Sanskrit poet seldom takes leave
of his delicacy of feeling and his sense of art ; and even if he
is ardent and luxuriant, he is more openly exhilarating than
offensively cynical.
The Sanskrit poet cannot also forget that, beside his
elegant royal "patron and the cultivated Nagaraka, he had a more
exacting audience in the Easika or Sahrdaya, the man of taste,
the connoisseur, whose expert literary judgment is the final test
of his work. Such a critic, we are told, must not only possess
technical knowledge of the requirements of poetry, but also a
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 25
fine capacity of aesthetic enjoyment, born of wide culture
and sympathetic identification with the feelings and ideas of
the poet. The Indian ideal of the excellence of poetry is
closely associated with a peculiar condition of artistic enjoy-
ment, known as Rasa, the suggestion of which is taken to be
its function, and in relation to which the appreciator is called
Rasika. It is a reflex of the sentiment, which has been suggest-
ed in the poem, in the mind of the appreciator, as a relishable
condition of impersonal enjoyment resulting from the idealised
creation of poetry. The evoking of sentiment, therefore, is
considered to be the most vital function of poetry ; and stress is
put more and more on sentimental composition to the exclusion
of the descriptive or ornamental. But here also the theorists
are emphatic that in the art of suggesting this sentimental
enjoyment in the reader's mind, the poetic imagination must
show itself. As Oldenberg 1 remarks with insight, the Indian
theorists permit intellectual vigour and subtlety ^ the masculine
beauty, to stand behind that of the purely feminine enjoyment
born of the finest sensibility. Both these traits are found in the
literature from the beginning — the idea of delectable rapture
side by side with a strong inclination towards sagacity and
subtlety. It is true that the dogmatic formalism of a scholastic
theory of poetry sinks to the level of a cold and monotonously
inflated rhetoric ; but the theorists are at the same time not
blind to finer issues, nor are they indifferent to the supreme
excellence of real poetry * and the aesthetic pleasure resulting
from it. They take care to add that, despite dogmas and
formulas, the poetic imagination must manifest itself as the
ultimate source of poetic charm. The demands that are made
of the poet are, thus, very exacting; he must not only be
initiated into the intricacies of theoretic requirements but
must also possess poetic imagination (Sakti), aided by culture
1 Die Literatur des alien Indian, p. 207 f.
2 Of. Anandavardhana, p. 29 : asminn ati'Vicitra-kavipararppara-vahini sarfi$&re K&li*
dasa-prabhrtayo dvitra paflcatQ, va maliakavaya ttt g any ate.
4— 1343B
26 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
(Vyutpatti) and practice (Abhyasa). Even if we do not rely
upon Rajagekhara's elaborate account of the studies which
go to make up the finished poet, there can be no doubt
that considerable importance is attached to the " education'1 of
the poet,1 whose inborn gifts alone would not suffice, and for
whose practical guidance in the devices of the craft, convenient
manuals 2 are elaborately composed.
It is not necessary to believe that the poet is actually an
adept in the long list of arts and sciences8 in which he is required
to be proficient ; but it is clear that he is expected to possess (and
be is anxious to show that he does possess) a vast fund of useful
information in the various branches of learning. Literature is
regarded more and more as a learned pursuit and as the product
of much cultivation. No doubt, a distinction is made between
the Vidvat and the Vidagdha, between a man versed in belles-
lettres and a dry and tasteless scholar ; but it soon becomes a
distinction without much difference. The importance of inspira-
tion is indeed recognised, but the necessity of appealing to a
learned audience is always there. It is obvious that in such an
atmosphere the literature becomes; rich and refined, but natural
i See F. W. Thomas, Bhandarkar Com,n. Volume, p. 397 f ; S. K. De, Sanskrit Poetics,
II, pp. 357 f, 42 f.n., 52; Keith, HSL, pp. &38-41. Raja^ekbara gives an interesting, but
gome what heightened, picture of the daily life and duties of the poet, who is presented as a
man of fashion and wealth, of purity in body, mind and speech, but assiduous and hard-
working at his occupation.
* These works furnish elaborate hints on the construction of different metres, on the dis-
play of word-skill of various kinds, on jeux de mot* and tricks of producing double meaning,
conundrums, riddles, alliterative and chiming verses, and various other devices of verbal in-
genuity. They give instructions on the employment of similes and enumerate a large number
of .ordinary parallelisms for that purpose. They give lists of Kavi-samayas or conventions
observed by poets, and state in detail what to describe and how to describe.
5 The earliest of such lists is given by Bbamaha I. 9, which substantially agrees
with that of Rudrata (1. 18^ ; but Vamana (1.8.20-21) deals with the topic in some detail. The
longest list includes Grammar, Lexicon, Metrics, Ehetoric, Arts, Dramaturgy," Morals, Erotics
Politics* Law, Logic, Legends, Religion and Philosophy, as well as such miscellaneous sub-
jects as Medicine, Botany, Mineralogy, knowledge of precious stones, Elephant-lore, Veteri-
nary science, Art of War and Weapons, Art of Gambling, Magic, Astrology and Astronomy,
knowledge of Vedic rites and ceremonies, and of the ways of the world,
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 27
ease and spontaneity are sacrificed for studied effects, and re-
finement leads perforce to elaboration.
The Kavya, therefore, appears almost from its very begin-
ning as the careful work of a trained and experienced specialist.
The technical analysis of a somewhat mechanical Ehetoric leads
to the working of the rules and means of the poetic art into a
system ; and this is combined with a characteristic love of adorn-
ment, which demands an ornamental fitting out of word and
thought. The difficulty of the language, as well as its com-
plexity, naturally involves prolonged endeavour and practice for
effective mastery, but it also affords endless opportunity and
temptation for astonishing feats of verbal jugglery, which
perhaps would not be possible in any other language less accommo-
dating than Sanskrit. Leaving aside the grotesque experiments
of producing verses in the shape of a sword, wheel or lotus, or of
stanzas which have the same sounds when read forwards or back-
wards, and other such verbal absurdities, the tricks in poetic
form and decorative devices are undoubtedly clever, but they are
often overdone. They display learned ingenuity more than real
poetry, and the forced use of the language is often a barrier to
quick comprehension. Some poets actually go to the length of
boasting 1 that their poem is meant for the learned and not for
the dull-witted, and is understandable only by means of a com-
mentary.2 The involved construction, recondite vocabulary ,
laboured embellishment, strained expression, and constant search
after conceits, double meanings and metaphors undoubtedly
justify their boasting; but they evince an exuberance of fancy
and erudition rather than taste, judgment and real feeling.
This tendency is more and more encouraged by the elaborate
rules and definitions of Khetoric, until inborn poetic fervour is
1 E.g. Blia\ti, XXII. 34 ; vyakhya-gamyam idam kdvyam utsavah sttdhiyam a/am \ hatt
durmedhasat cfomin vidvat-priyataya naya II . Here the Vidagdha is ignored deliberately for
the Vidvaf.
2 Some authors had, in fact, to write their own commentaries to make themselves in-
telligible. Even Xnandavardhana who deprecates Buch tricks in his theoretical work does
not steer clear of them in his Dem-tataka.
28 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
entirely obscured by technicalities of expression. In actual
practice, no doubt, gifted poets aspire to untrammelled utterance;
but the general tendency degenerates towards a slavish adherence
to rules, which results in the overloading of a composition by
complicated and laboured expressions.
Comments have often been made on the limited range and
outlook of Sanskrit literature and on the conventionality of its
themes. It is partly the excessive love of form and expression
which leads to a corresponding neglect of content and theme.
It is of little account if the subject-matter is too thin and
threadbare to support a long poem, or if the irrelevant and often
commonplace descriptions and reflections hamper the course of
the narrative; what does matter is that the diction is elaborately
perfect, polished and witty, and that the poem conforms to the
recognised standard,1 and contains the customary descriptions,
however digressive, of spring, dawn, sunset, moonrise, water-
sports, drinking bouts, amorous practices, diplomatic consulta-
tions and military expeditions, which form the regular stock-in-
trade of this ornate poetry. A large number of so-called poetic
conventions (Kavi-samayas)2 are established by theorists
and mechanically repeated by poets, while descriptions of
things, qualities and actions are stereotyped by fixed epithets,
cliche phrases and restricted formulas. Even the various motifs
which occur in legends, fables and plays8 are worn out by repeti-
J See Dan<}in, Kavyadarsa, 1. 14-19 ; Visvanatba, Sdhitya-darpana, VI. 316-25, eta.
2 For a list of poetic conventions see RajaSekhara, Kavya-mimamsa, XIV ; Amaraaimha,
Kavya-kalpalata, I. 5 ; Sahitya-darpana, VII. 23-24, etc. Borne of the commonest artificial con-
ventions are : the parting of the Cakravaka bird at night from its mate ; the Cakora feeding
on the moonbeams; the blooming of the As*oka at the touch of a lady 'a feet; fame and
laughter described as white ; the flower-bow and bee-string of the god of love, etc. Originally
the writers on poetics appear to have regarded these as established by the bold usage of the
poet (kavi-praudhokti'siddha), but they are gradually stereotyped as poetical commonplaces.
3 Such as the vision of the beloved in a dream, the talking parrot, the magic steed, the
fatal effect of an ascetic's curse, transformation of shapes, change of sex, the art of entering
into another's body, the voice in the air, the token of recognition, royal love for a lowly
maiden and the ultimate discovery of her real status as a princess, minute portraituie of the
heroine's personal beauty and the generous qualities of the hero, description of pangs of
thwarted love and sentimental longing. M. Bloomfield (Festscrift Ernst Windi*ch> Leipzig,
OtllGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 29
tion and lose thereby their element of surprise and charm. The
question of imitation, borrowing or plagiarism1 of words or ideas
assumes importance in this connexion ; for it involves a test of
the power of clever reproduction, or sometimes a criticism of
some weakness in the passages consciously appropriated but
improved in the course of appropriation.
The rigidity, which these commonplaces of conventional
rhetoric acquire, is the result, as well as the cause, of the time-
honoured tendency of exalting authority and discouraging origi-
nality, which is a remarkable characteristic of Indian culture in
general and of its literature in particular, and which carries the
suppression of individuality too far. It is in agreement with
this attitude that Sanskrit Poetics neglects a most vital aspect of
its task, namely, tfce study of poetry as the individualised expres-
sion of the poet's mind, and confines itself more or less to a
normative doctrine of technique, to the formulation of laws,
modes and models, to the collection and definition of facts and
categories and to the teaching of the means of poetic expression.
This limitation not only hinders the growth of Sanskrit Poetics
into a proper study of Aesthetic,2 but it also stands in the way
of a proper appreciation and development of Sanskrit literature.
The theory almost entirely ignores the poetic personality in a
work of art, which gives it its particular shape and individual
character. Sanskrit Poetics cannot explain satisfactorily, for
1914, pp. 349-61; JAOS, XXXVI, 1917, p. 51-89; XL, 1920, pp. 1-24; XLIV, 1924, pp. 202-42),
W.Norman Brown (JAOS, XLVII, 1927, pp. 3-24), Penzer (in his ed. of Tawney's trs. of
Katha-sarit-safjara, 'Ocean of Story ') and others have studied in detail some of these motifs
recurring in Sanskrit literature. Also see Bloomfield in Amer. Journ. of Philology, XL, pp.
1-86 ; XLI, pp. 309-86 ; XLIV, pp. 97-133, 193-229 ; XLVII, pp. 205-233 ; W. N. Brown in ibid.,
XL, pp. 423-30 ; XLTI, pp.122-51 ; XLIII, pp . 289-317 ; Studien in Honour of M. Bloomfield,
pp. 89-104, 211-24 (Ruth Norton) ; B. H. Burlingaine in JRAS, 1917, pp. 429-67, etc.
1 The question ia discussed by inandavardhana, Dhvanyaloka, III. 12 f. ; Raja&khara
Kavya-mimattisa, XI f ; Ksemendra, Kavikanthabharana, II, 1 ; Hemacandra, Katyanu6asana
pp. 8 f . See S. K. De, Sanskrit Poetics, II, pp. 362, 373.
2 See S. K, De, Sanskrit Poetics as a Study of Aesthetic in Dacca University Studies,
Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 80-124.
30 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LltEfcATUtlE
instance, the simple question as to why the work of one poet is
not the same in character as that of another, or why two works
of the same poet are not the same. To the Sanskrit theorist a
composition is a work of art if it fulfils the prescribed require-
ments of 'qualities,' of 'ornaments,' of particular arrangements
of words to suggest a sense or a sentiment ; it is immaterial
whether the work in question is Raghu~vam,$a or Naisadha. The
main difference which he will probably see between these two
works will probably consist of the formal employment of this or
that mode of diction, or in their respective skill of suggesting
this or that meaning of the words. The theorists never bother
themselves about the poetic imagination, which gives each a
distinct and unique shape by a fusion of impressions into an
organic, and not a mechanic, whole. No doubt, they solemnly
affirm the necessity of Pratibha or poetic imagination, but in
their theories the Pratibha does not assume any important or
essential role ; and in practical application they go further and
speak of making a poet into a poet. But it is forgotten that a
work of art is the expression of individuality, and that individua-
lity never repeats itself nor conforms to a prescribed mould. It
is hardly recognised that what appeals to us in a poem is the
poetic personality which reveals itself in the warmth, movement
and integrity of imagination and expression. No doubt, the poet
can astonish us with his wealth of facts and nobility of thought,
or with his cleverness in the manipulation of the language, but
this is not what we ask of a poet. What we want is the expres-
sion of a poetic mind, in contact with which our minds may be
moved. If this is wanting, we call his work dull, cold or flat,
and all the learning, thought or moralising in the world cannot
save a work from being a failure. The Sanskrit theorists justly
remark that culture and skill should assist poetic power or per-
sonality to reveal itself in its proper form, but what they fail to
emphasise is that any amount of culture and skill cannot 'make'
a poet, and that a powerful poetic personality must justify a work
of art by itself.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 31
The result is that Sanskrit poetry is made to conform to
certain fixed external standard attainable by culture and practice ;
and the poetic personality or imagination, cramped within pres-
cribed limits, is hardly allowed the fullest scope or freedom to
create new forms of beauty. Although the rhetoricians put
forward a theory of idealised enjoyment as the highest object of
poetry, yet the padagogic and moralistic objects are enumerated
in unbroken tradition. In conformity with the learned and
scholastic atmosphere in which it flourishes, poetry is valued for
the knowledge it brings or the lessons it inculcates, and is
regarded as a kind of semi-3astra; while the technical analysis and
authority of the rhetorician tend to eliminate the personality of
the poet by mechanising poetry. The exaltation of formal skill
and adherence to the banalities of a formal rhetoric do not
sufficiently recognise that words and ornaments, as symbols,
are inseparable from the poetic imagination, and that,
as such, they are not fixed but mobile, not an embalmed
collection of dead abstractions, but an ever elusive series of
living particulars. Sanskrit literature is little alive to these
considerations, and accepts a normative formulation of poetic
expression. But for the real poet, as for the real speaker, there
is hardly an armoury of ready-made weapons ; he forges his
own weapons to fight his own particular battles.
It must indeed be admitted that the influence of the theorists
on the latter-day poets was not an unmixed good. While the
poetry gained in niceties and subtleties of expression, it lost
a great deal of its unconscious freshness and spontaneity. It
is too often flawed by the very absence of flaws, and its want
of imperfection makes it coldly perfect. One can never deny
that the poet is still a sure and impeccable master of his craft,
but he seldom moves or transports. The pictorial effect, the
musical cadence and the wonderful spell of language are undoubted,
but the poetry is more exquisite than passionate, more studied
and elegant than limpid and forceful. We have heard so much
about the artificiality and tediousness of Sanskrit classical
32 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
poetry that it is not necessary to emphasise the point ; but the
point which has not been sufficiently emphasised is that the
Sanskrit poets often succeed in getting out of their very narrow
and conventional material such beautiful effects that criticism
is almost afraid to lay its cold dry finger on these fine blossoms
of fancy. It should not be forgotten that this literature is not
the spontaneous product of an uncritical and ingenuous age,
but that it is composed for a highly cultured audience. It pre-
supposes a psychology and a rhetoric which have been reduced
to a system, and which possesses a peculiar phraseology and a
set of conceits of their own. We, therefore, meet over and
over again with the same tricks of expression, the same strings
of nouns and adjectives, the same set of situations, the same
groups of conceits and the same system of emotional analysis.
In the lesser poets the sentiment and expression are no longer
fresh and varied but degenerate into rigid artistic conventions.
But the greater poets very often work up even these romantic
commonplaces and agreeable formulas into new shapes of beauty.
Even in the artificial bloom and perfection there is almost always
a strain of the real and ineffable tone of poetry. It would
seem, therefore, that if we leave aside the mere accidents of
poetry, there is no inherent lack of grasp upon its realities. It
is admitted that the themes are narrow, the diction and imagery
are conventional, and the ideas move in a fixed groove ; but the
true poetic spirit is not always wanting, and it is able to trans-
mute the rhetorical and psychological banalities into fine things
of art.
The Sanskrit poet, for instance, seldom loses an opportunity
of making a wonderful use of the sheer beauty of words and
their inherent melody, of which Sanskrit is so capable. The
production of fine sound-effects by a delicate adjustment of word
and sense is an art which is practised almost to prefection. It
cannot be denied that some poets are industrious pedants in
their strict conformity to rules and perpetrate real atrocities by
their lack of subtlety and taste in matching the sense to
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 33
the sound ; but, generally speaking, one must agree with the
appreciative remarks of a Western critic that " the classical
poets of India have a sensitiveness to variations of sound, to
which literatures of other countries afford few parallels, and theii
delicate combinations are a source of never-failing joy". The
extraordinary flexibility of the language and complete mastery
over it make this possible ; and the theory which classifies
Sanskrit diction on the basis of sound-effects and prescribes
careful rules about them is not altogether futile or pedantic.
One of the means elaborately employed for achieving this end
is the use of alliteration and assonance of various kinds. Such
verbal devices, no doubt, become flat or fatiguing in meaning-
less repetition, but in skilled hands they produce remarkable
effects which are perhaps not attainable to the same extent in
any other language. Similar remarks apply to the fondness
for paronomasia or double meaning, which the uncommon
resources of Sanskrit permit. In languages like English,
punning lends itself chiefly to comic effects and witticisms or,
as in Shakespeare1! to an occasional flash of dramatic feeling;
but in classical languages it is capable of serious employment as a
fine artistic device.2 It is true that it demands an intellectual
strain disproportionate to the aesthetic pleasure, and becomes
tiresome and ineffective in the incredible and incessant torturing
of the language found in such lengthy triumphs of misplaced
ingenuity as those of Subandhu and Kaviraja ; but sparingly
and judiciously used, the puns are often delightful in their terse
brevity and twofold appropriateness. The adequacy of the
language and its wonderful capacity for verbal melody are also
utilised by the Sanskrit poet in a large number of lyrical measures
of great complexity, which are employed with remarkable skill
and^ense of rhythm in creating an unparalleled series of musical
word-pictures.
i Merchant of Venice, IV. 1, 123 ; Julius Caeser, I. 2, 156 (Globe Ed.),
1 C/. Darin's dictum : ttesali pttsnati sarv&su prayo vakrokii*u triyam.
0-1348B
34 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
The elegance and picturesqueness of diction are, again,
often enhanced by the rolling majesty of long compounds, the
capacity for which is inherent in the genius of Sanskrit
and developed to the fullest extent. The predilection for
long compounds, especially in ornate prose, is indeed often
carried to absurd excesses, and is justly criticised for the
construction of vast sentences extending over several pages and
for the trick of heaping epithet upon epithet in sesquipedalian
grandeur ; but the misuse of this effective instrument of synthetic
expression should not make us forget the extraordinary power of
compression and production of unified picture which it can
efficiently realise. It permits a subtle combination of the
different elements of a thought or a picture into a perfect whole,
in which the parts coalesce by inner necessity ; and it has been
rightly remarked that " the impression thus created on the
mind cannot be reproduced in an analytical speech like English,
in which it is necessary to convey the same content, not in a
single sentence syntactically merged into a whole, like the idea
which it expresses, but in a series of loosely connected predica-
tions ' f . Such well-knit compactness prevents the sentences from
being jerky, flaccid or febrile, and produces undoubted sonority,
dignity and magnificence of diction, for which Sanskrit is always
remarkable, and which cannot be fully appreciated by one who
is accustomed to modern analytical languages.
The inordinate length of ornate prose sentences is set off by
the brilliant condensation of style which is best seen in the
gnomic and epigrammatic stanzas, expressive of maxims of
sententious wisdom with elaborate terseness and flash of wit.
The compact neatness of paronomasia, antithesis and other verbal
figures often enhances the impressiveness of these pithy sayings;
and their vivid precision is not seldom rounded off by appropriate
similes and metaphors. The search for metaphorical expression
is almost a weakness with the Sanskrit poets ; but, unless it is a
deliberately pedantic artifice, the force and beauty with which it
is employed canpot be easily denied. The various forjns of
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 35
metaphors and similes are often a source of fine surprise by their
power of happy phraseology and richness of poetical fancy.
The similarities, drawn from a fairly wide range, often display
a real freshness of observation, though some of them become
familiar conventions in later poetry ; and comparison in some
form or other becomes one of the most effective means of
stimulating the reader's imagination by suggesting more than
what is said. When the similarity is purely verbal, it is witty
and neat, but the poet seldom forgets to fit his comparison to the
emotional content or situation.
Closely connected with this is the power of miniature
painting, compressed in a solitary stanza, which is a charac-
teristic of the Kavya and in which the Sanskrit poets excel to a
marvellous degree. In the epic, the necessity of a continuous
recitation, which should flow evenly and should not demand too
great a strain on the audience, makes the poet alive to the unity
of effect to be produced by subordinating the consecutive stanzas
to the narrative as a whole. The method which is evolved in the
Kavya is different. No doubt, early poets like Agvagbosa and
Kalidasa do not entirely neglect effective narration, but the later
Kavya attaches hardly any importance to the theme or story and
depends almost exclusively on the appeal of art finically displayed
in individual stanzas. The Kavya becomes a series of miniature
poems or methodical verso-paragraphs, loosely strung on the
thread of the narrative. Each clear-cut stanza is a separate
unit in itself, both grammatically and in sense, and presents a
perfect little picture. Even though spread out over several
cantos, the Kavya really takes the form, not of a systematic and
well knit poem, but of single stanzas, standing by themselves^
in which the poet delights to depict a single idea, a single phase
of emotion, or a single situation in a complete and daintily
finished form. If this tradition, of the stanza-form is not fully
satisfactory in a long composition, where unity of effect is
necessary, it is best exemplified in the verse-portion of the
dramas^, as well as in the Satakas, such as those of Bhartfhari and
36 HISTORY Ofr SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Amaru, in which the Sanskrit poetry of love, resignation or
reflection finds the most effective expression in its varying moods
and phases. Such miniature painting, in which colours are
words, is a task of no small difficulty ; for it involves the perfect
expression, within very restricted limits, of a pregnant idea or an
intense emotion with a few precise and elegant touches.
All this will indicate that the Sanskrit poet is more directly
concerned with the consummate elegance of his art than with any
message or teaching which he is called upon to deliver. It is
indeed not correct to say that the poet does not take any interest
in the great problems of life and destiny, but this is seldom writ
large upon his work of art. Except in the drama which
comprehends a wider and fuller life, he is content with the
elegant symbols of reality rather than strive for the reality itself ;
and his work is very often nothing more than a delicate blossom
of fancy, fostered in a world of tranquil calm. Nothing ruffles
the pervading sense of harmony and concord ; and neither deep
tragedy nor great laughter is to be found in its fulness in Sanskrit
literature. There is very seldom any trace of strife or discontent,
clash of contrary passions and great conflicts ; nor is there any
outburst of rugged feelings, any great impetus for energy and
action, any rich sense for the concrete facts and forces of life.
There is also no perverse attitude which clothes impurity in the
garb of virtue, or poses a soul-weariness in the service of callous
wantonness. Bitter earnestness, grim violence of darker passions,
or savage cynicism never mar the even tenor and serenity of these
artistic compositions which, with rare exceptions, smooth away
every scar and wrinkle which might have existed. It is not
that sorrow or suffering or sin is denied, but the belief in the
essential rationality of the world makes the poet idealistic in
his outlook and placidly content to accept the life around
himt while the purely artistic attitude makes him transcend the
merely personal. The Sanskrit poet is undoubtedly pessimistic
in his belief in the inexorable law of Karrnan and rebirth, but
his ttnliroited pessimism with regard to this world is toned down
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 37
by his unlimited optimism with regard to the next. It fosters
in him a stoical resignation, an epicurean indifference and a
mystic hope and faith, which paralyse personal energy, suppress
the growth of external life and replace originality by sub-
mission. On the other hand, this is exactly the atmosphere
which is conducive to idealised creation and serenity of
purely artistic accomplishment, in which Sanskrit poetry
excels.
This complacent attitude towards life falls in with the view
of Sanskrit Poetics which distinguishes the actual world from
the world of poetry, where the hard and harsh facts of life
dissolve themselves into an imaginative system of pleasing fictions.
It results in an impersonalised and ineffable aesthetic enjoyment,
from which every trace of its component or material is obliterated.
In other words, love or grief is no longer experienced as love or
grief in its disturbing poignancy, but as pure artistic sentiment
of blissful relish evoked by the idealised poetic creation. To
suggest this delectable condition of the mind, to which the name
of Rasa is given is regarded both by theory and practice to be
the aim of a work of art ; and it is seldom thought necessary
to mirror life by a direct portrayal of fact, incident or character.
It is for this reason that the delineation of sentiment becomes
important — and even disproportionately important — in poetry,
drama and romance ; and all the resources of poetic art and
imagination are brought to bear upon it. Only a secondary or
even nominal interest is attached to the story, theme; plot or
character, the unfolding of which is often made to wait till the
poet finishes his lavish sentimental descriptions or his refined
outpourings of sentimental verse and prose.
This over-emphasis on impersonalised poetic sentiment and
its idealised enjoyment tends to encourage grace, polish and
fastidious technical finish, in which fancy has the upper
hand of passion and ingenuity takes the place of feeling. Except
perhaps in a poet like Bhavabhuti, we come across very little of
rugged and forceful description, very little of naturalness and
8 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE!
simplicity, hardly any genuine emotional directness, nor any
love for all that is deep and poignant, as well as grand and
awe-inspiring, in life and nature. Even Kalidasa's description
of the Himalayas is more pleasing and picturesque than stately
and sublime. The tendency is more towards the ornate and the
refined than the grotesque and the robust, more towards har-
monious roundness than jagged angularity, more towards
achieving perfection of form than realising the integrity and
sincerity of primal sensations. It is, therefore, not surprising
that there is no real lyric on a large scale in Sanskrit ; that its
so-called dramas are mostly dramatic poems ; that its historical
writings achieve poetical distinction but are indifferent to mere
fact; that its prose romances sacrifice the interest of theme
to an exaggerated love of diction ; and that its prose in general
feels the effect of poetry.
Nevertheless, the Sanskrit poet is quite at home in the
depiction of manly and heroic virtues and the ordinary emotions
of life, even if they are presented in a refined domesticated form.
However self-satisfied he may appear, the poet has an undoubted
grip over the essential facts of life ; and this is best seen, not in
the studied and elaborate masterpieces of great poets, but in the
detached lyrical stanzas, in the terse gnomic verses of wordly
wisdom, in the simple prose tales and fables, and, above all, in
the ubiquitous delineation of the erotic feeling in its infinite
variety of moods and fancies. There is indeed a great deal of
what is conventional, and even artificial, in Sanskrit love-poetry ;
it speaks of love not in its simplicities but in its subtle moments.
What is more important to note is that it consists often of the
exaltation of love for love's sake, the amorous cult, not usually
of a particular woman, a Beatrice or a Laura, but of woman as
such, provided she is young and beautiful. But in spite of all
this, the poets display a perfect knowledge of this great human
emotion in its richness and variety and in its stimulating situa-
tions of joy and sorrow, hope and fear, triumph and defeat. If
they speak of the ideal woman, the real woman is always before
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 39
their eyes. The rhetorical commonplaces and psychological
refinements seldom obscure the reality of the sentiment ; and the
graceful little pictures of the turns and vagaries of love are often
remarkable for their fineness of conception, precision of touch
and delicacy of expression. The undoubted power of pathos
which the Sanskrit poet possesses very often invests these erotic
passages with a deeper and more poignant note ; and the poetical
expression of recollective tenderness in the presence of suffering,
such as we find in Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti, is unsurpassable for
its vividness of imagery and unmistakable tone of emotional
earnestness. But here again the general tendency is to elaborate
pathetic scenes in the theatrical sense, and to leave nothing to
the imagination of the reader. The theorists are indeed emphatic
that tlie sentiment should be suggested rather than expressed,
and never lend their authority to the fatal practice of wordy
exaggeration ; but this want of balance is perhaps due not
entirely to an ineffective love of parade and futile adorning of
trivialities, but also to an extreme seriousness of mind and
consequent want of humour, which never allow the poet to
attain the necessary sense of proportion and aloofness. There
is enough of wit in Sanskrit literature, and it is often
strikingly effective ; but there is little of the saving grace of
humour and sense of the ridiculous. Its attempts at both comic
and pathetic effects are, therefore, often unsuccessful ; and, as
we have said, it very seldom achieves comedy in its higher forms
or trngedy in its deeper sense.
But the seriousness, as well as the artificiality, of Sanskrit
literature is very often relieved by a wonderful feeling for
natural scenery, which is both intimate and real. In spite of
a great deal of magnificently decorative convention in painting,
there is very often the poet's freshness of observation, as well as
the direct recreative or reproductive touch. In the delineation
of human emotion, aspects of nature are very often skilfully
interwoven ; and most of the effective similes and metaphors of
Sanskrit love-poetry are drawn from the surrounding familiar
40 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
scenes. The J&tu-sarfihara, attributed to Kalidasa, reviews the six
Indian seasons in detail, and explains elegantly, if not with deep
feeiingf the meaning of the seasons for the lover. The same power
of utilizing nature as the background of human emotion is seen
in the Megha-diita, where the grief of the separated lovers is set
in the midst of splendid natural scenery. The tropical summer
and the rains play an important part in the emotional life of
the people. It is during the commencement of the monsoon
that the traveller returns home after long absence, and the expect-
ant wives look at the clouds in eagerness, lifting up the ends of
their curls in their hands; while the maiden, who in hot summer
distributes water to the thirsty traveller at the wayside resting
places, the Prapa-palika as she is called, naturally evokes a large
number of erotic verses, which are now scattered over the Antho-
logies. Autumns also inspires beautiful sketches with its clear
blue sky, flocks of white flying geese and meadows ripe with
corn ; and spring finds a place with its smelling mango-blossoms,
southern breeze and swarm of humming bees. The groves
and gardens of nature form the background not only to these
little poems, and to the pretty little love-intrigues of the Sanskrit
plays, but also to the larger human drama played in the hermi-
tage of Kanva, to the passionate madness of Pururavas, to the
deep pathos of Rama's hopeless grief for Sita in the forest of
Dandaka, and to the fascinating love of Krsna and Radha on the
banks of the Yamuna.
It would appear that even if the Kavya literature was
magnificent in partial accomplishment, its development was
considerably hampered by the conditions under which it grew,
and the environment in which it flourished. If it has great
merits, its defects are equally great. It is easier, however,
to magnify the defects and forget the merits ; and it is often
difficult to realise the entire mentality of these poets in order
to appreciate their efforts in their proper light. The marvellous
results attained even within very great limitations show that
was surely nothing wrong with the genius of the poets,
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS '41
but something was wrong in the literary atmosphere, which*
cramped its progress and prevented the fullest enfranchisement
of the passion and the imagination. The absence of another
literature for comparison — for the later Prakrit and allied
specimens are mainly derivative — was also a serious drawback^
which would partially explain why its outlook is so limited and
the principles of poetic art and practice so stereotyped. India,
through ages, never stood in absolute isolation, and it could
assimilate and transmute what it received ; but Sanskrit
literature had very few opportunities of a real contact with any
other great literature. As in the drama, so in the romance
and other spheres, we cannot say that there is any reliable
ground to suppose that it received any real impetus from Greek
or other sources; and it is a pity that such an impetus never
came to give it new impulses and save it from stagnation.
It should also be remembered that the term Kavya is not
co-extensive with what is understood by the word poem or
poetry in modern times. It is clearly distinguished from the
' epic/ to which Indian tradition applies the designation of
Itihasa; but the nomenclature ' court-epic ' as a term of com-
promise is misleading. The underlying conception, general
outlook, as well as the principles which moulded the Kavya are,
as we have seen, somewhat different and peculiar. Generally
speaking, the Kavya, with its implications and reticences, is
never simple and untutored in the sense in which these
terms can be applied to modern poetry; while sentimental
and romantic content, accompanied by perfection of form,
subtlety of expression and ingenious embellishment, is regarded,
more or less, as essential. The Sanskrit Kavya is wholly
dominated by a self-conscious idea of art and method; it
is not meant for undisciplined enjoyment, nor for the
satisfaction of causal interest. The rationale is furnished
by its super-normal or super-individual character, recognised
by poetic theory, which rules out personal passion and empha- l
sises purely artistic emotion. This is also obvious from the
6-184SB
£2 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
fact that the bulk of this literature is in the metrical form.
But both theory and practice make the Kavya extensive enough
to comprehend in its scope any literary work of the imagination,
and refuse to recognise metre as essential. It, therefore, includes
poetry, drama, prose romance, folk-tale, didactic fable, historical
writing and philosophical verse, religious and gnomic stanza, —
in fact, every branch of literature which may be contained
within the denomination of belles-lettres in the widest sense, to
the exclusion of whatever is purely technical or occasional. One
result of this attitude is that while the drama tends towards the
dramatic poem, the romance, tales and even historical or
biographical sketches are highly coloured by poetical and stylistic
effects. In construction, vocabulary and ornament, the prose
also becomes poetical. It is true that in refusing to admit that
the distinction between prose and poetry lies in an external fact,
namely the metre, there is a recognition of the true character of
poetic expression ; but in practice it considerably hampers the
development of prose as prose. It is seldom recognised that
verse and prose rhythms have entirely different values, and that
the melody and diction of the one are not always desirable in the
other. As the instruments of the two harmonies are not clearly
differentiated as means of literary expression, simple and
vigorous prose hardly ever develops in Sanskrit ; and its achieve-
ment is poor in comparison with that of poetry, which almost
exclusively predominates and even approximates prose towards
itself.
3. THE ORIGIN AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DRAMA
The question of the origin and individual characteristics
of the various types of literary composition comprised under the
Kavya will be discussed in their proper places ; but since drama,
like poetry, forms one of its important branches, we may briefly
consider here its beginnings, as well as its object, scope and
method^ The drama, no doubt, as a subdivision of the KavyaA
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS '43
partakes of most of its general characteristics, but since its
form and method are different, it is necessary to consider it
separately.
The first definite, but scanty, record of the Sanskrit drama
is found in the dramatic fragments, discovered in Central Asia
and belonging to the early Kusana period, one of these fragments
being actually the work of Asvagbosa. The discovery, of which
we shall speak more later, is highly important from the histori-
cal point of view ; for the features which these fragments reveal
undoubtedly indicate that the drama had already attained
the literary form and technique which persist throughout its
later course ; and its fairly developed character suggests that
it must have had a history behind it. This history, unfortun-
ately, cannot be traced today, for the earlier specimens which
might have enabled us to do so, appear to have perished in
course of time. The orthodox account of the origin of the
Sanskrit drama, by describing it as a gift from heaven in the
form of a developed art invented by the divine sage Bharata,
envelops it in an impenetrable mist of myth ; while modern
scholarship, professing to find the earliest manifestation of a
ritual drama in the dialogue-hymns of the Rgvcda and presuming
a development of the dramatic from the religious after the manner
of the Greek drama, shrouds the question of its origin in a still
greater mist of speculation.
The original purpose 1 of some fifteen hymns of the Rgveda^
which are obviously dialogues and are recognised as such by the
Indian tradition,2 is frankly obscure. Most of them, like those
of Pururavas and Urvasi" (x. 95), Yama and Yarn! (x. 10),
Indra, Indrani and Vrsakapi (x. 80), Saramfi and the Panis
(x. 108), are not in any way connected with the religious sacrifice,
1 For a summary and discussion of the various theories and for references, see Keith
in ZDMG, Ixiv, 1910, p. 534 f, in JRAS, 1911, p. 970 f and in his Sanskrit Drama (hereafter
cited as SD), p. 13 f.
2 Both Saunaka and Y&ska ay ply the term Samvada-sukta to most of these hymni, but
sometimes the terms Itihasa and Xkhyana are also employed. Even assuming popular origin
and dramatic elements, the hymns are in no sense ballads or ballad-plays.
44 HISTORY OF 'SANSKRIT LITERATURE
nor do they represent the usual type of religious hymns of prayer
and thanksgiving ; but they appear to possess a mythical or
legendary content. It has been claimed that here we have the
first signs of the Indian drama. The suggestion is that these
dialogues call for miming ; and connected with the ritual dance,
song and music, they represent a kind of refined and sacerdotal-
ised dramatic spectacle,1 or in fact, a ritual drama, or a Vedic
Mystery Play in a nutshell,2 in which the priests assuming the
roles of divine, mythical or human interlocutors danced and
sang8 the hymns in dialogues. To this is added the further
presumption4 that the hymns represent an old type of composi-
tion, narrative in character and Indo-European in antiquity, in
which there existed originally both prose and verse ; but the
verse, representing the points of interest or feeling, was carefully
constructed and preserved, while the prose, acting merely as a con-
necting link, was left to be improvised, and therefore never re-
mained fixed nor was handed down. It is assumed that the dialogues
in the Kgvedic hymns represent the verse, the prose having
disappeared before or after their incorporation into the Samhita ;
and the combination of prose and verse in the Sanskrit drama
is alleged to be a legacy of this hypothetical Vedic Akhyana.
It must be admitted at once that the dramatic quality of the
hymns is considerable, and that the connexion between the drama
and the religious song and dance in general has been made clear
by modern research. At first sight, therefore, the theory appears
plausible; but it is based on several unproved and unnecessary
assumptions. It is not necessary, for instance, nor is there any
authority, for finding a ritual explanation of these hymns ; for
1 8. L6vi, Tht&lre indien, Paris, 1890, p. 333f.
2 Ij. von Scbroeder, Mysteriumund Mimus im fgveda, Leipzig, 1908; A. HilJebrandt,
Bber die Anfdnge dee indischen Dramast Munich, 1914, p. 22 f.
3 J. Hertel in W ZKM, XVIII, K04, p. 59 f, 137 f ; XXIIJ, p. 273 f ; XXIV, p. 117 f.
Hertel maintains that unless singing is presumed, it is not possible for a single speaker to
make the necessary distinction between the different speakers presupposed in the dialogues of
the hymns.
< H. OMenberg in ZDMG, XXXII, p. 64 f ; XXXIX, p. 62 ; and also in Zur Geschichte
d. altindischen Prosa, Berlin, 1917, p. 63f.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 45
neither the Indian tradition nor even modern scholarship admits
the presumption that everything contained in the Rgveda is con-
nected with the ritual. As a matter of fact, no ritual employment
for these hymns is prescribed in the Vedic texts and commen-
taries. We have also no record of such happenings as are com-
placently imagined, nor of any ritual dance actually practised by
the Vedic priests; the Rgvedic, as opposed to the Samavedic,
hymns were recited and not sung; and later Vedic literature
knows nothing of a dramatic employment of these hymns. It is
true that some of the Vedic ritual, especially the fertility rites,
like the Mahavrata, contains elements that are dramatic, but the
existence of a dramatic ritual is no evidence of the existence of a
ritual drama. It is also not necessary to conceive of these
Rgvedic dialogue-hymns as having been in their origin a mixture
of poor prose and rich verse for the purpose of explaining the
occurrence of prose and verse in the Sanskrit drama from its very
beginning ; for the use of prose in drama is natural arid requires
no explanation, and, considering the epic tradition and the general
predominance of the metrical form in Sanskrit literature, the
verse is not unexpected. Both prose and verse in the Sanskrit
drama are too intimately related to have been separate in their
origin.
The modified form of the above theory,1 namely, that the
Vedic ritual drama itself is borrowed from an equally hypothetical
popular mime of antiquity, which is supposed to have included
dialogue and abusive language, as well as song and dance, is an
assumption which does not entirely dismiss the influence of reli-
gious ceremonies, but believes that the dramatic element in the
ritual, as well as the drama itself, had a popular origin. But to
accept it, in the absence of all knowledge about popular or reli-
gious mimetic entertainment in Vedic times,2 is extremely
1 Sten Konow, Das ind. Drama, Berlin and Leipzig, 1920, p. 42 f.
3 The analogy of the Yatrii, which is as much secular as bound up with religion in iti
origin, is interesting, but there is nothing to show that such forms of popular entertainment
actually existed in Vedic times.
46 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
difficult. The influence of the element of abusive language and
amusing antics in the Horse-sacrifice, as well as in the Maha-
vrata,1 appears to have been much exaggerated; for admittedly it
is an ingredient of magic rites, and there is no evidence either of
its popular character or of its alleged impetus towards the growth
of the religious drama. The history of the Vidusaka of the
Sanskrit drama,2 which is sometimes cited in support, is at most
obscure. He is an anomalous enough character, whose name
implies that he is given to abuse and who is yet rarely such in the
actual drama, who is a Brahmin and a ' high ' character and who
yet speaks Prakrit and indulges in absurdities ; but his derivation
from an imaginary degraded Brahmin of the hypothetical secular
drama, on the one hand, is as unconvincing as his affiliation to a
ritual drama, on the other, which is presumed from the abusive
dialogue of the Brahmin student and the hataera in the Maha-
vrata ceremony. An interesting parallel is indeed drawn from the
history of the Elizabethan Pool, who was originally the ludicrous
Devil of mediaeval Mystery Plays ;l{ but an argument from analogy
is not a proof of fact. The Vidusaka's attempts at amusing by
his cheap witticisms about his gastronomical sensibilities are
inevitable concessions to the groundlings and do not require the
far-fetched invocation of a secular drama for explanation. The
use of Prakrit and Prakritic technical terminology in the Sanskrit
drama, again, has been adduced in support of its popular
origin, but we have no knowledge of any primitive Prakrit drama
or of any early Prakrit drama turned into Sanskrit, and the
occurrence of Prakritic technical terms maybe reasonably referred
to the practice of the actors.
It seems, therefore, that even if the elements of the drama
were present in Vedic times, there is no proof that the drama,
1 A. Hillebrandfc, RitualUtteratuT, Strassburg, 1897, p. 157.
* Sten KonoWj op. cff., pp. 14-15. See also J. Huizioga, De Vidusaka in het indisch
tooneel, Groningen, 1897, p. 64 f, and M. Scbuyler, The Origin of the Vidu§aka in JAOS, XX,
1899, p. 838 f.
3 A. Hillebrandt, Die Anf&nge, p. 24 f .
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS '47
in however rudimentary form, was actually known. The actor
is not mentioned, nor does any dramatic terminology occur.
There may have been some connexion between the dramatic
religious ceremonies and the drama in embryo, but the theory
which seeks the origin of the Sanskrit drama in the sacred dance,
eked out by song, gesture and dialogue, on the analogy of what
happened in Greece or elsewhere, is still under the necessity of
proving its thesis by actual evidence ; and little faith can be
placed on arguments from analogy. The application of Ridge-
way's theory J of the origin of drama in general in the animistic
worship of the dead is still less authenticated in the case of the
Sanskrit drama ; for the performance is never meant here for
the gratification of departed spirits, nor are the characters
regarded as their representatives.
As a reaction against the theory of sacred origin, we have
the hypothesis of the purely secular origin of the Sanskrit drama
in the Puppet-play2 and the Shadow-play'1; but here again the
suggestions do not bear critical examination, and the lack of exact
data precludes us from a dogmatic conclusion. While the refer-
ence to the puppet-play in the Mahabhdrata * cannot be exactly
dated, its supposed antiquity and prevalence in India, if correct,
do not necessarily make it the source of the Sanskrit drama ; and
its very name (from putrika, puttalika) implies that it is only a
make-believe or imitation and presupposes the existence of the
regular play. The designations Sutradhara and Sthapaka need
not refer to any original manipulation of puppets by * pulling
strings' or 'arranging/ but they clearly refer to the original
1 Ae set forth in Dramas and Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races, Cambridge,
1938, also in JRAS, 1916, p. 821 f, 1917, p. 143 f, effectively criticised by Keith in JRAS,
1916, p. 335 f , 1917, p. 140 f .
2 R. Piachel in Die Heimat des Puppenspiels, Halle, 1900 (tra. into English by Mildred
0. Tawney, London, 1902).
3 Pischel in Das aUindische Schattenspiel in SBAW, 1906, pp. 482-602, further ela-
borated by H. Liiders in Die Saubhikas : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte d. indischen Dramas IB
SBAW.WIQ, p. 698 f.
* XII. 294. 5, as explained by Nllakantha.
1& HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
function of the director or stage-manager of laying out and con-
structing the temporary playhouse. With regard to the shadow-
play, in which shadow-pictures are produced by projection from
puppets on the reverse side of a thin white curtain, the evidence
of its connexion with the drama is late and indefinite,1 and
therefore inconclusive. Whatever explanation 2 may be given of
the extremely obscure passage in Patafijali's Mahabhasya (ad. iii.
1. 26) on the display of the Saubhikas, there is hardly any
foundation for the view8 that the Saubhikas discharged the func-
tion of showing shadow-pictures and explaining them to the
audience. The exact meaning, again, of the term Chaya-nataka,
found in certain plays, is uncertain ; it is not admitted as a
known genre in Sanskrit dramatic theory, and none of the so-
called Chaya-natakas is different in any way from the normal
drama. The reference to the Javanese shadow-play does not
strengthen the position, for it is not yet proved that the Javanese
type was borrowed from India or that its analogue prevailed in
India in early times ; and its connexion with the Sanskrit drama
cannot be established until it is shown that the shadow-play
itself sprang up without a previous knowledge of the drama.
Apart from the fact, however, that the primitive drama in
general shows a close connexion with religion, and apart also
from the unconvincing theory of the ritualistic origin of the
Sanskrit drama, there are still certain facts connected with the
Sanskrit drama itself which indicate that, if it was in its origin
not exactly of the nature of a religious drama, it must have been
considerably influenced in its growth by religion or religious
cults. In the absence of sufficient material, the question does
1 On the whole question and for references, eee Keith in SDt pp, 58-57 and 8. K. De
in IHQ, VII, 1931, p. 542 f .
* Various explanations have been suggested by Kayyata in his commentary ; by A.
W*ber in Ind. Studien, XIII, p. 488 f. ; by Le>i, op. tit., p. 315 ; by Ltiders in the work cited
above; by Winternitz in ZDMG.t LXXIV, 1920, p. 118 ff. ; by Hillebrandt in ZDMG,
LXXII, 1918, p. 227 f. ; by Keith in BSOS, I, pt. 4, p. 27 f.f and by K. G. Sabrahmanya
in JRAS, 1925, p. 502.
1 Ltiders, op. cit. supported by Winternitz, but effectively criticised by Hilltbrandt
and Keith.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 49
not admit of clear demonstration, but it can be generally accepted
from some undoubted indications. One of the early descriptions
of scenic representation that we have is that given by Patanjali,
mentioned above ; it is interesting that the entertainment
is associated with the Visnu-Krsna legend of the slaying of
Kamsa and the binding of Bali. It may not have been drama
proper, but it was not a mere shadow-play nor recitation of the
type made by the Granthikas ; it may have been some kind of
pantomimic, or even dramatic, performance distinctly carried out
by action. It should be noted in this connexion that, on the
analogy of the theory of the origin of the Greek drama from
a mimic conflict of summer and winter, Keith sees 1 in the legend
of the slaying of Kainsa a refined version of an older vegetation
ritual in which there was a demolition of the outworn spirit of
vegetation, and evolves an elaborate theory of the origin of Indian
tragedy from this idea of a contest. But the tendency to read
nature-myth or nature- worship into every bit of legend, history
or folklore, which was at one time much in vogue, is no longer
convincing ; and in the present case it is gratuitous, and even
misleading, to invoke Greek parallels to explain things Indian.
It is sufficient to recognise that here we have an early indi-
cation of the close connexion of some dramatic spectacle with
the Visnu-Krsna legend, the fascination of which persists
throughout the history of Sanskrit literature. Again, it may
be debatable whether SaurasenI as the normal prose Prakrit of
the Sanskrit drama came from the Krsna cult, which is supposed
to have its ancient home in Surasena or Mathura ; but there
can be no doubt that in the fully developed Sanskrit drama the
Krsna cult 2 came to play an important part. The Holi-festival
of the Krsna cult, which is essentially a spring festival, is
sometimes equated with the curious ceremony of the decoration
and worship of Indra's flagstaff (Jarjara- or Indradhvaja-puja)
1 In ZDMG, LXIV, 1910, p. 534 f. ; in JRAS, 1911, p. 079, 1912, p. 411; in SD, p. 87 f.
2 On the Kfspa cult, see Winternitz in ZDMG, LXXIV, 1920, p. 118 f.
7— 1343B
50 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
prescribed by Bharata as one of the preliminaries (Purva-ranga)
of enacting a play, on the supposition that it is analogical to
the Maypole ceremony of England and the pagan phallic rites of
Eome. The connexion suggested is as hypothetical as Bharata's
legendary explanation that with the flagstaff Tndra drove away
the Asuras, who wanted to disturb the enacting of a play by the
gods, is fanciful ; but it has been made the somewhat slender
foundation of a theory 1 that the Indian drama originated
from a banner festival (Dhvaja-maha) in honour of Indra. The
existence of the Nandl and other religious preliminaries of the
Sanskrit drama is quite sufficient to show that the ceremony of
Jarjara-puja, whatever be its origin, is only a form of the
customary propitiation of the gods, and may have nothing to
do with the origin of the drama itself. It is, however,
important to note that religious service forms a part of the
ceremonies preceding a play ; and it thus strengthens the
connexion of the drama with religion. Like Indra and
Krsna, Siva 2 is also associated with the drama, for Bharata
ascribes to him and his spouse the invention of the Tandava
and the Lasya, the violent and the tender dance, respectively ;
and the legend of Kama has no less an importance than that of
Krsna in supplying the theme of the Sanskrit drama.
All this, as well as the attitude of the Buddhist and Jaina
texts towards the drama,8 would suggest that, even if the
theory of its religious origin fails, the Sanskrit drama probably
received a great impetus from religion in its growth. In the
absence of decisive evidence, it is better to admit our inability
to explain the nature and extent of the impetus from this and
other sources, than indulge in conjectures which are of facts,
fancies and theories all compact. It seems probable, however,
that the literary antecedents of the drama, as of poetry, are to
be sought mainly in the great Epics of India. The references to
1 Haraprasad Sastri in JPASB, V, 1909, p. 351 f.
2 Bloch in ZDMG, LXII, 1908, p. 655.
3 Keith, SD. pp. 43-44.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 51
the actor and dramatic performance in the composite and
undatable texts of the Epics and the Hari-vamsa need not be of
conclusive value, nor should stress be laid on the attempted
derivation of the word Kusllava,1 denoting an actor, from Kusa
and Lava of the Ramayana ; but it seems most probable that
the early popularity of epic recitation, in which the reciter
accompanied it with gestures and songs, can be connected with
the dramatisation of epic stories. How the drama began we
do not know, nor do we know exactly when it began; but the
natural tendency to dramatisation, by means of action, of a
vivid narrative (such, for instance, as is suggested by the
Mahabhasya passage) may have been stimulated to a great degree
by the dramatic recitation of epic tales. No doubt, the develop-
ed drama is not a mere dramatisation of epic material, and it
is also not clear how the idea of dramatic conflict and analysis
of action in relation to character were evolved; but the Sanskrit
drama certainly inherits from the Epics, in which its interest
is never lost throughout its history, its characteristic love of
description, which it shares with Sanskrit poetry ; and both
drama and poetry draw richly also upon the narrative and
didactic content of the Epics. The close approximation also of
drama to poetry made by Sanskrit theory perhaps points to the
strikingly parallel, but inherently diverse, development from a
common epic source ; and it is not surprising that early poets
like Asvaghosa and Kalidasa were also dramatists. The other
1 L6vi, op. cit., p. 312; Sben Konow, op. «f., p. 9. It is uob clear if the term is
really a compound of irregular formation; and the etymology /wHZ/a, ' of bad morals', is
clever in view of the proverbial morals of the actor, but farfetched. The word Bharata, also
denoting the actor, is of course derived from the mythical Bharata of the Natya-sastra, and
has nothing to do with Bharata, still less with Bhat i which is clearly from Bha$ta. The
nauie Ndja, which is apparently a Prakritisation of the earlier rooc nrt ' to dance ' (contra
D. K. Minkad, Types of Sanskrit Drama, Karachi, 1920, p. 6 f) probibly indicates that he
was originally, and perhaps mainly, a dancer, who acquired the mimetic art. The distinction
between Nrtta f Dancing), Nrty a (Dancing with gestures and feeliugs) and Natya (Drama
with histrionics), made by the Datancpaka (1.7-9) and other works, is certainly late, but
it is not uuhistorical ; for it explains the evolution of the Itupaka and Uparupaka
techniques.
52 HISTOJlY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
literary tendency of the drama, namely, its lyric inspiration and
metrical variety of sentimental verses, however, may have been
supplied by the works of early lyrists, some of whose fragments
are preserved by Patanjali. The extant dramatic literature, like
the poetic, does not give an adequate idea of its probable
antiquity1; but that the dramatic art probably developed some-
what earlier even than the poetic can be legitimately inferred
from the admission of the rhetoricians that they borrow the
theory of sentiment from dramaturgy and apply it to poetics, as
well as from the presumably earlier existence of the Natya-£astra
of Bharata than that of any known works on poetics,
The extreme paucity of our knowledge regarding the impetus
which created the drama has led to the much discussed sugges-
tion2 that some influence, if not the en-tire impetus, might have
come from the Greek drama. Historical researches have now
established the presence of Greek principalities in India ; and it
is no longer possible to deny that the Sanskrit drama must have
greatly developed during the period when the Greek influence was
present in India. As we know nothing about the causes of this
development, and as objections regarding chronology and contact
1 Panini's reference to Nata-sutras composed by Silalin and Kr Sasva (IV. 3. 11.0-111) has
been dismissed as doubtful, for there is no means of determining the meaning of the word
Nata (see above), which may refer to a mere dancer or mimer. But the drama, as well as
the dramatic performance, is known to Buddhist literature, not only clearly to works of
uncertain date like the Avadana-Sataka (II. 21 >, the Divyavaddna (pp. 357, 360-61j and the
Lalita-vistara (XII, p. 178), but also probably to the Buddhist Suttas, which forbid the monks
watching popular shows. The exact nature of these shows 13 not clear, but there is no reason
to presume that they were not dramatic entertainments. See Winternitz in WZKM,
XXVII, 1913, p. 39f ; L6vi, op. cit , p. 819 f.— The mention of the word Na$a or Nataka in the
undatable and uncertain texts of the Epics (including the Hari-vamta) is of little value
for chronological purposes.
2 A. Weber in Ind. Studien, II, p. 148 and Die Griechen in Indien in SBAWt 1890, p. 920;
repudiated by Pischel in Die Rezension der tfakuntala, Breslau, 1875, p. 19 and in SB A W ,
19C6, p. 602; but elaborately supported, in a modified form, by Windisch in Der griechische
Einfluss im indtschen Drama (in Verhl. d. 7. Intern. Orient. Congress] Berlin, 1882, pp. 3 f.
See Sten Konow,op. ct't., pp. 4042 and Keith, SDt pp. 57-(38, for a discussion of the theory and
further references. W. W. Tarn reviews the whole question in his Greeks in BacLria and
Indtc, Cambridge, 1938, but he is extremely cautious on the subject of Greek influence on the
Sinikrit drama; see Keith's criticism in D. R. Bhandarkar Volume, Calcutta, 1940, p. 224 f.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTFR18TICS OO
are not valid, there is nothing a priori impossible in the presump-
tion of the influence of the Greek drama on the Indian. The
difficulty of Indian exclusiveness and conservatism is neutralised
by instances of the extraordinary genius of India in assimilating
what it receives from foreign sources in other spheres of art and
science, notwithstanding the barrier of language, custom and
civilisation.
But there are difficulties in adducing positive proof in support
of the presumption. The evidence regarding actual performance
of Greek plays in the courts of Greek princes in India is extremely
scanty; 1 but more important is the fact that there are no decisive
points of contact, but only casual coincidences,2 between the
Sanskrit drama and the New Attic Comedy, which is regarded as
the source of the influence. No reliance can be placed on the use
of the device of token of recognition3 common to the two dramas.
Although the forms in which it has come down to us do not
antedate the period of supposed Greek influence, the Indian lite-
rature of tales reveals a considerable use of this motif ; and there
are also epic instances4 which seem to preclude the possibility of
its being borrowed from the Greek drama. It is a motif common
enough in the folk-tale in general, and inevitable in primitive
society as a means of identification ; and its employment in the
Sanskrit drama can be reasonably explained as having been of
independent origin. No satisfactory inference, again, can be
1 L6vi, op. eft., p. GO, but contra Keith, SD,p. 59.
2 Such as division into acts, number of acts, departure of all actors from the stage at the
end of the acts, the scenic convention of asides, the announcing1 of the entry and identity of a
new character by a remark from a character already on the stage, etc. The Indian Prologue
is entirely different from the Classical, being a part of the preliminaries and having a definite
character and ob.'ecfc. — Max Lindenau's exposition IBeitrdge zur altindischen Rasalehre,
Leipzig 1913, p. v) of the relation between Bharafca's Natya-sdstra and Aristotle's Poetik is
interesting, but proves nothing.
3 E.g., the ring in MdlaviLdgnimitra and Sakuntalat stone of union and arrow (of
Ayus) in Vikramorvatiya, necklace iu Ratnavali, the jewel falling from the sky in Nagdnanda,
the garland in MdJatl-mddhava and Kunda-mdld, the Jrmbhaka weapons in Uttara-taritat the
clay cart in Mrcchakatika, the seal in Mudrd-rd!f§asa, etc.
4 Keith, SD, p, 63.
54 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
drawn from the resemblance of certain characters, especially the
Vita, the Vidusaka, and the Sakara. The parasite occurs in the
Greek and Roman comedy, but he lacks the refinement and
culture of the Indian Vita; the origin of the Vidusaka,
as we have seen, is highly debatable, but his Brahmin
caste and high social position distinguish him from the
vulgar slave (servus currens) of the classical comedy ; and we know
from Pataiijali that the Sakara was originally a person of Saka
descent and was apparently introduced into the Sanskrit drama
as a boastful, ignorant and ridiculous villain at a time when the
marital alliance of Indian kings with Saka princesses had fallen
into disfavour.1 These characters are not rare in any society,
and can be easily explained as having been conceived from actual
life in India. The argument, again, from the Yavanika 2 or
curtain, which covered the entrance from the retiring room
(Nepathya) or stood at the back of the stage between the Ranga-
pltha and the Eangaslrsa, and which is alleged to have received
its name from its derivation from the lonians(Yavanas) or Greeks,
is now admitted to be of little value, for the simple reason that
the Greek theatre, so far as we know, had no use for the curtain.
The theory is modified with the suggestion that the Indian curtain
1 He is represented as the brother of the king's concubine; cf. Sdlutya-darpana, III, 44.
Cf E. J. lUpson's article on the Drama (Indian) in ERE, Vol. IV, p. 885.
2 Windhch, op cit., p. 24 f. The etymology given by Indian lexicographers fiom javat
1 speed f (in the Prakrit Javanika form of the word), or the deiivation from the root yu ' to
cover,* is ingenious, but not convincing. There i 3 nothing to confirm the opinion that the
form Jainanika is a scribal mistake rB6thlingk and Roth) or merely secondary (Sten Konow),
for it is recognised in the Indian lexicons and occurs in some MSS. of plays. If this was the
original form, then it would signify a curtain only (from the root yamt * to restrain, cover '), or
double curtain covering the two entrances from the Nepathya (from yama, ' twin ') ; but there
is no authority for holding that the curtain was parted in the middle. See IHQ, VII, p. 480 f.
The word YavanikS, is apparently known to Bharata, as it occurs at 5. 11-12 in the description
of the elements of the Purvarafiga. Abhinavagnpta explains that its position was between
the Kungas'Irsa and Rangapltha (ed. QOS, p. 212). The other names are Pati, Pratis'iift and
Tiraskaranl. There was apparently no drop curtain on the Indian stage.— -The construction of
the Indian theatre, as described by Bharata, has little resemblance to that of the Greek ; and
Th. Blocb's discovery of the remains of a Greek theatre in the Sitavenga Cave (ZDMG,
LVITI, p. 456 f ) is of doubtful value as a decisive piece of evidence.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 55
is so called because the material of the cloth was derived from
the Greek merchants ; but even this does not carry us very far to
prove Greek influence on the Indian stage arrangement.
It will be seen that even if certain striking parallels and
coincidences are urged and admitted between the Greek and the
Sanskrit drama, the search for positive signs of influence
produces only a negative result. There are so many funda-
mental differences that borrowing or influence is out of the
question, and the affinities should be regarded as independent
developments. The Sanskrit drama is essentially of the romantic
rather than of the classical type, and affords points of
resemblance to the Elizabethan, rather than to the Greek, drama.
The unities of time and place are entirely disregarded between
the acts as well as within the act. Even twelve years elapse
between one act and another, and the time-limit of an act 1
often exceeds twenty-four hours ; while the scene easily shifts
from earth to heaven. Eomantic and fabulous elements are
freely introduced ; tragi-comedy or melodrama is not infrequent;
verse is regularly mixed with prose ; puns and verbal cleverness
are often favoured. There is no chorus, but there is a metrical
benediction and a prologue which are, however, integral parts
of the play and set the plot in motion. While the parallel of
the Vidusaka is found in the Elizabethan Fool, certain dramatic
devices, such as the introduction of a play within a play 2 and
the use of a token of recognition, are common. There is no
limit in the Sanskrit drama to the number of characters, who
may be either divine, semi-divine or human. The plot may
be taken from legend or from history, but it may also be drawn
from contemporary life and manners. With very rare excep-
tions, the main interest almost invariably centres in a love-story,
love being, at least in practice, the only passion which forms
1 On time'analysis of Sanskrit plays (Kalidasa and Hsrsa), £ee Jackson in JAOS,
XX, 1899, pp. 841-59; XXI, 1900, pp. SB- 108.
3 As in Priyadartika, Uttara-rama-carita and Bala-ramayana See Juck son's appendix
to the ed. of the fiist play, pp. ev-cxi.
56 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
the dominant theme of this romantic drama. Special structures
of a square, rectangular or triangular shape for the presentation
of plays are described in the Ndtya-sastra,1 but they have little
resemblance to the Greek or modern theatre and must have
been evolved independently. Very often plays appear to have
been enacted in the music hall of the royal palace, and there
were probably no special contrivances, nor elaborate stage-proper-
ties, nor even scenery in the ordinary sense of the word. The
lack of these theatrical makeshifts was supplied by the lively
imagination of the audience, which was aided by a profusion
of verses describing the imaginary surroundings, by mimetic
action and by an elaborate system of gestures possessing a con-
ventional significance.
Besides these more or less formal requirements, there are
some important features which fundamentally distinguish the
Sanskrit drama from all other dramas, including the Greek.
The aim of the Sanskrit dramatists, who were mostly idealists
in outlook and indifferent to mere fact or incident, is not to
mirror life by a direct portrayal of action or character, but
(as in poetry) to evoke a particular sentiment (Rasa) in the
mind of the audience, be it amatory, heroic or quietistic. As
this is regarded, both in theory and practice, to be the sole
object as much of the dramatic art as of the poetic, everything
else is subordinated to this end. Although the drama is des-
cribed in theory as an imitation or representation of situations
(Avasthanukrti), the plot, as well as characterisation, is a
secondary element ; its complications are to be avoided so that
it may not divert the mind from the appreciation of the senti-
ment to other interests. A well known theme, towards which
the reader's mind would of itself be inclined, is normally
preferred ; the poet's skill is concerned entirely with the develop-
ing of its emotional possibilities. The criticism, therefore, that
the Sanskrit dramatist shows little fertility in the invention of
1 On the theatre see D. R. Maukad in 1HQ, VIII, 1932, pp. 480-99.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 57
plots may be just, but it fails to take into account this peculiar
object of the Sanskrit drama.
Thus, the Sanskrit drama came to possess an atmosphere
of sentiment and poetry, which was conducive to idealistic
creation at the expense of action and characterisation, but
which in the lesser dramatists overshadowed all that was drama-
tic in it. The analogy is to be found in Indian painting
and sculpture, which avoid the crude realism of bones and
muscles and concentrate exclusively on spiritual expression, but
which often degenerate into formless fantastic creation. This,
of course, does not mean that reality is entirely banished ; but
the sentimental and poetic envelopment certainly retards the
growth of the purely dramatic elements. It is for this reason
that sentimental verses, couched in a great variety of lyrical
measures and often strangely undramatic, preponderate and form
the more essential part of the drama, the prose acting mainly
as a connecting link, as a mode of communicating facts, or as
a means of carrying forward the story. The dialogue is^ there-
fore, more or less neglected in favour of the lyrical stanza,
to- which its very flatness affords an effective contrast. It also
follows from this sentimental and romantic bias that typical
characters are generally preferred to individual figures. This
leads to the creation of conventional characters, like the king,
queen, minister, lover and jester, who become in course of time
crystallised into permanent types ; but this does not mean that
the ideal heroic, or the very real popular, characters are all
represented as devoid of common humanity. Carudatta, for
instance, is not a mere marvel of eminent virtues, but a perfect
man of the world, whose great qualities are softened by an
equally great touch of humanity ; nor is Dusyanta a merely
typical king-lover prescribed by convention ; while the Sakara
or the Vita in Sudraka's play are finely characterised. These
and others are taken from nature's never-ending variety of
everlasting types, but they are no less living individuals. At
the same time, it cannot be denied there is a tendency to large
8-1343B
58 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
generalisation and a reluctance to deviate from the type. It
means an indifference to individuality, and consequently to the
realities of characterisation, plot and action, as well as a corres-
ponding inclination towards the purely ideal and emotional
aspects of theme. For this reason also, the Sanskrit drama,
as a rule, makes the fullest use of the accessories of the lyric,
dance, music, song and mimetic art.
As there is, therefore, a fundamental difference in the
respective conception of the drama, most of the Sanskrit plays,
judged by modern standards, would not at all be regarded as
dramas in the strict sense but rather as dramatic poems. In
some authors the sense of the dramatic becomes hopelessly lost
in their ever increasing striving after the sentimental and the
poetic, and they often make the mistake of choosing lyric or epic
subjects which were scarcely capable of dramatic treitment. As,
on the one' hand, the drama suffers from its close dependence on
the epic, so on the other, it concentrates itself rather
disproportionately on the production of the polished
lyrical and descriptive stanzas. The absence of scenic aids, no
doubt, makes the stanzas necessary for vividly suggesting the
scene or the situation to the imagination of the audience and
evoking the proper sentiment, but the method progressively
increases the lyric and emotional tendencies of the drama, and
elegance and refinement are as much encouraged in the drama as
in poetry. It is not surprising, therefore, that a modern critic
should accept only Mudra-raksasa, in the whole range of Sanskrit
dramatic literature, as a drama proper. This is indeed an
extreme attitude; for the authors of the Abhijnana-fakuntala or
of the Mrcchakatika knew very well that they were
composing dramas and not merely a set of elegant poetical
passages ; but this view brings out very clearly the characteristic
aims and limitations of the Sanskrit drama. There is, however,
one advantage which is not often seen in the modern practical
productions of the stage-craft. The breath of poetry and
romance vivifies the Sanskrit drama ; it is seldom of a prosaic
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 59
cast ; it does not represent human beings insipidly under ordinary
and commonplace circumstances ; it has often the higher and
more poetic naturalness, which is no less attractive in revealing
the beauty, as well as the depth, of human character ; and even
uhen its dramatic qualities are poor it appeals by the richness of
its poetry.
As the achievement of concord is a necessary corollary to the
ideal character of the drama, nothing is allowed to be represented
on the stage which might offend the sensibility of the audience
and obstruct the suggestion of the desired sentiment by
inauspicious, frivolous or undesirable details. This rule regarding
the observance of stage-decencies includes, among other things,
the prohibition that death should not be exhibited on the stage.
This restriction, as well as the serene and complacent attitude of
the Indian mind towards life, makes it difficult for the drama, as
for poetry, to depict tragedy in its deeper sense. Pathetic episodes,
dangers and difficulties may contribute to the unfolding of the
plot with a view to the evoking of the underlying sentiment, but
the final result should not be discord. The poetic justice of the
European drama is unknown in the Sanskrit. The dramatist,
like the poet, shows no sense of uneasiness, strife or discontent
in the structure of life, nor in its complexity or difficulty, and
takes without question the rational order of the world. This
attitude also accepts, without incredulity or discomfort, the
intervention of forces beyond control or calculation in the affairs
of men. Apart from the general idea of a brooding fate or
destiny, it thinks nothing of a curse or a divine act as an artificial
device for controlling the action of a play or bringing about a
solution of its complication. It refuses to rob the world or the
human life of its mysteries, and freely introduces the marvellous
and the supernatural, without, however, entirely destroying the
motives of human action or its responsibility. The dramatic
conflict, under these conditions, hardly receives a full or logical
scope ; and however much obstacles may hinder the course of love
or life, the hero and the heroine must be rewarded in the long
60 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
run, and all is predestined to end well by the achievement of
perfect happiness and union. There are indeed exceptions to the
general rule, for the Uru-bhanga1 has a tragic ending ; while the
death of Dagaratha occurs on the stage in the Pratima, like that
of Kamsa in the Bala-carita. There are also instances where the
rule is obeyed in the letter but not in spirit; lor Vasantasena's
apparent murder in the Mrcchakatika occurs on the stage, and
the dead person is restored to life on the stage in the Nagananda.
Nevertheless, the injunction makes Kaiidasa and Bhavabhuti
alter the tragic ending of the Urvasi legend and the Rdmayana
story respectively into one of happy union, while the sublimity
of the self-sacrifice of Jimutavahana, which suggests real
tragedy, ends in a somewhat lame denouement of divine interven-
tion and complete and immediate reward of virtue at the end.
In the Western drama, death overshadows everything and forms
the chief source of poignant tragedy by its uncertainty and
hopelessness ; the Indian dramatist, no Jess pessimistic in his
belief in the in exorable law of Karman, does not deny death,
but, finding in it a condition of renewal, can hardly regard it in
the same tragic light.
It is, however, not correct to say that the Sanskrit drama
entirely excludes tragedy. What it really does is that it excludes
the direct representing of death as an incident, and insists on a
happy ending. It recognises some form of tragedy in its pathetic
sentiment and in the portrayal of separation in love ; and tragic
interest strongly dominates some of the great plays. In the
Mrcchakatiha and the Abhijnana-sakuntala, for instance, the
tragedy does not indeed occur at the end, but it occurs in
the middle ; and in the Uttara-rama-carita where the tragic
interest prevails throughout, it occurs in an intensive form
at the beginning of the play. The theorists appear to maintain
1 It has, however, been pointed out (Sukthankar in JBRAS, 1925, p. 141) that the
UrU'bhahga is not intended to be a tragedy in one act; it Js only the surviving intermediate
act of a lengthy dramatised version of the Mohabliarata story; the Trivandrum dramas,
therefore, form no exception to the general rule prohibiting a final catastrophe.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS
that there is no tragedy in the mere fact of death, which
in itself may be a disgusting, terrible or undignified spectacle
and thus produce a hiatus in the aesthetic pleasure. Cruelty,
murder, dark and violent passions, terror and ferocity
need not have a premium. Undigested horrors are gloomy,
depressing and unhealthy ; they are without dignity or decorum
and indicate a morbid taste ; they do not awaken genuine pity
or pathos. The Sanskrit drama generally keeps to the high
road of life and never seeks the by-lanes of blood-and-thunder
tragedy, or representation of loathsome and unnatural passions.
Grim realism, in its view, does not exalt but debase the mind,
and thereby cause a disturbance of the romantic setting. The
theory holds that tragedy either precedes or follows the fact
of death, which need not be visually represented, but the effect
of which may be utilised for evoking the pathetic. It appears,
therefore, that tragedy is not totally neglected, but that it is
often unduly subordinated to the finer sentiments and is thus
left comparatively undeveloped. The theory, however, misses
the inconsolable hopelessness which a tragic ending inevitably
brings ; and the very condition of happy ending makes much
of the tragedy of the Sanskrit drama look unconvincing.
In spite of the unmistakable tone of earnestness, the certainty
of reunion necessarily presents the pathos of severance as a
temporary and therefore needlessly exaggerated sentimentality.
There are also certain other conditions and circumstances
which seriously affect the growth of the Sanskrit drama, in the
same way as they affect the growth of Sanskrit poetry. From
the very beginning the drama, like poetry, appears to have
moved in an aristocratic environment. It^is fostered in the same
elevated and rarefied atmosphere^and^ isj^Pgcted to sbowjhe
sam e cha racte r i sties , being regardedjjoth ^yj-h^ory and practice,
as a subdivision of the Kavya, to the general aim^andTmethod
of which it was more and more approximated. In the existing
specimens there is nothing primitive ; we have neither the
infancy of the drama nor the drama of infancy. The Sanskrit
HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
drama was never popular in the sense in which the Greek drama
was. It is essentially a developed literary drama, inspired by the
elegant poetic conventions of the highly cultured Sahrdaya, whose
recognition was eagerly coveted ; and its dominant love-motif
reflects the tastes and habits of the polished court-circle, as well
as of the cultivated Nagaraka. The court-life in particular,
which forms the theme of a number of plays on the amourettes
of philandering princes, gives an opportunity of introducing
song/ dance and music ; and the graceful manner and erotic
sentiment become appropriate. In course of time, Poetics, Erotics
and l|famaturgy conventionalised these tastes and habits ; and
refined fancy and search after stylistic effect came in with the
gradual preference of the subtle and the finical to the fervid
and the spontaneous. The graces and artificialities of poetry
become reflected in the drama, which soon loses its true
accent of passion and fidelity to life.
Although the theorists lay down an elaborate classification
of the various categories of sentiments, it is yet curious to note
that in practice the sentiments that are usually favoured are
Hhe heroic and the erotic, with just an occasional suggestion
of the marvellous. This accords well with the ideal and romantic
character of the clramn, as well as with the fabulous and sungr-
— ~YH ' — "^ — "^^
natural elements which are freely introduced. The comic, under
the circumstances, hardly receives a proper treatment. The
Prahasana and the Bhana profess to appeal to the comic senti-
ment, but not in a superior form ; and the survival of an
insignificant and limited number of these types of composition
shows that they did not succeed very well. The other sentiments
are also suggested but they hardly become prominent. Even
in the heroic or lofty subjects, an erotic underplot is often
introduced ; and in course of time the erotic overshadows every
other sentiment, and becomes the exclusive and universally
appealing theme. It is true that the love-plots, which predo-
minate in the drama, are not allowed to degenerate into mere
portrayals of the petty domestic difficulties of a polygamic systeip,
ORIGINS AND CHABACTBKISTICS 63
but the dramatists often content themselves with the developing
of the pretty erotic possibilities by a stereotyped sentimental
scheme of love, jealousy, parting and reunion. The sciences
of Poetics and Erotics take a keen delight ex accidenti in
minutely analysing the infinite diversities of the amatory condition
and in arranging into divisions and subdivisions, according to
rank, character, circumstances and the like, all conceivable types
of the hero, the heroine, their assistants and adjuncts, as well as
the different shades of their feelings and gestures, which afford
ample opportunities to the dramatic poet for utilising them
for their exuberant lyrical stanzas. This technical analysis
and the authority of the theorists lead to the establishment of
fixed rules and rigid conventions, resulting in a unique growth
of refined artificiality.
There is indeed a great deal of scholastic formalism in the
dramatic theory of sentiment, which had a prejudicial effect
on the practice of the dramatist. The fixed category of eight
or nine sentiments, the subordination to them of a large number
of transitory emotions, the classification of determinants and
consequents, the various devices to help the movement of the
intrigue,: the normative fixing of dramatic junctures or stages
in accorflance with the various emotional states, the arrangement
of the dramatic modes (Vrttis)1 into the elegant (Kausiki), the
energetic (Sattvati), the violent (ArabhatI), and the verbal
(Bharati), according as the sentiment is the erotic, the heroic,
the marvellous* or only general, respectively — all these, no
doubt, indicate considerable power of empirical analysis arid
subtlety, and properly emphasise the emotional effect of the
drama ; but, generally speaking, the scholastic pedantry
concerns itself more with accidents than with essentials, and the
refinements of classification are often as needless2 as they are
1 Bbarata's description shows that the Vrttis do not refer to mere dramatic styles, but
also to dramatic machinery and representation of incidents on the stage.
* E.g., classification of Naty&tamkaras and Laksanas, the subdivisions of the
Satndbyangag, etc*
64 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
confusing. Although the prescriptions are not always logical but
mostly represent generalisations from a limited number of
plays, the influence of the theory on later practice is undoubted.
As in the case of poetry, the result is not an unmixed good; and,
after the creative epoch is over, we have greater artificiality and
unreality in conception and expression. Apart from various limi-
tations regarding form, theme, plot and character, one remarkable
drawback of the dramatic tlicory, which had a practical effect on
the development of the drama as drama, lies in the fact that it
enforces concentration of the sentiment round the hero or the
heroine, and does not permit its division with reference to the
rival of the hero, who therefore becomes a far inferior character
at every point. The theorists arc indeed aw, ire of the value of
contrast. To preserve the usual romantic atmosphere the ideal
heroes are often contrasted with vicious antagonists. But the
possibility is not allowed of making an effective dramatic creation
of an antagonist (like Havana, for instance), who often becomes
a mere stupid and boastful villain. The Sanskrit drama is
thereby deprived of one of the most important motifs of a real
dramatic conflict.
Ten chief (Rupaka) and ten to twenty minor (Uparupaka)
types of the Sanskrit drama are recognised by the Sanskrit
dramatic theory.1 The classification rests chiefly on the elements
of subject-matter (Vastu), hero (Nayaka) and sentiment (Rasa),
but also secondarily on the number of acts, the dramatic modes
and structure. The distinctions are interesting and are apparently
based upon empirical analysis ; they show the variety of dramatic
experiments in Sanskrit ; but since few old examples of most of the
types exist, the discussion becomes purely academic. The generic
term of the drama is Rupaka, which is explained as denoting any
visible representation ; but of its ten forms, the highest is the
Nataka which is taken as the norm. The heroic or erotic
1 For an analysis of the various types and specimens, see D. R. Mankad, Types of Sans-
krit Dramaf cited above.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 65
Nataka, usually consisting of five to ten acts, is given a legendary
subject-matter and a hero of elevated rank; but the practice
shows that it is comparatively free from minor restrictions. The
Prakarana is of the same length and similar structure, but it is a
comedy of manners of a rank below royalty, with an invented
subject and characters drawn from the middle class or even lower
social grades, including the courtesan as the heroine and rogues
of all kind. These two types, the Nataka and the Prakarana, are
variations of the full-fledged drama ; but the details of the other
types are not clear, and some of them are hardly represented in
actual specimens. The Samavakara, in three acts, is the super-
natural and heroic drama of gods and demons, involving fight,
fraud and disturbance, but of this we have no early specimen.
For a similar want of authentic specimens, it is difficult to dis-
tinguish it from the Pima, usually in four acts, which is inade-
quately described, but which is given a similar legendary theme
with a" haughty hero, fight and sorcery, and the furious sentiment,
its name being derived accordingly from a hypothetical root dim,
' to wound.' The Vyayoga, as its name suggests, is also a mili-
tary spectacle, with a legendary subject and a divine or human
hero engaged in strife and battle ; but it is in one act, and the
cause of disturbance is not a woman, the erotic and the
comic sentiments being debarred. The type is old, and we have
some specimens left, but they are of no great merit. We have,
however, no living tradition of the Ihamrga, the %Vithi and the
Utsrstanka. The first of these, usually extending to four acts
but allowed to have only one, has a fanciful designation, suppos-
ed to be derived from its partly legendary and partly invented
theme of the pursuit (Iha) of a maiden, as attainable as the
gazelle (Mrga), by a divine or human hero of a haughty character ;
but in it there is only a show of conflict, actual fight being
avoided by artifice. The other two agree in having only one act
and in having ordinary heroes, but the erotic and the pathetic
sentiments (with plenty of wailings of women !) respectively
predominate. The obscure name Vlthl, c Garland/ is explained
9-1848B
66 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITKRATtJRE
by its having a string of other subsidiary sentiments as well.1
The name Utsrstanka is variously explained,2 but since one of the
explanations 8 speaks of its having a kind of inverted action, it is
suggested that it may have had a .tr.-igic ending, contrary to
ordinary practice. The Bhana, on the other hand, is fortunate
in having some old and late specimens. It is also a one-act
play, erotic in character, but with only one hero-actor, namely
the Vita ; it is carried on in monologue, the theme progressing
by a chain of answers given by him to imaginary words ' spoken
in the air/ and usually describing the love-adventures of the
hero.4 The comic is sometimes introduced in it ; and in this
feature, as well as in the ribald character of the " hero/1 it has
affinity with the next type, namely, the Prahasana, the one-act
farce, the theme of which consists of the tricks and quarrels of
low characters ; but the Sanskrit farce has little appeal because of
its lack of invention and somewhat broad and coarse laughter.
As the very name Uparupaka implies, the eighteen minor
forms of the drama were evolved much later, but it is difficult
to say at what period they carne into existence. Bharata does
not deal with any Uparupaka, except the NatI (xviii. 106); and the
first enumeration of seventeen varieties, without the designation of
Uparupaka and without any discussion, occurs in the Alamkara
section of the Agni-purana (c. 9th century). Abhinavagupta only
incidentally mentions nine, and the commentary on the Da£ar&paha
1 B'lt the Natya-darpona suggests : vokrokti-mdrgena gamandd rithlva mfhi.
2 E.g., vtkraminonmuliha srstir jwitairi yasam ta uisritika tocantyah striyns t&bhir
ahkitatrdd ulsrstikahkah from the Natya-darpana (ed. GOS, Haroda, 1920, p. 180). Or, ViSva-
natha's alternative suggestion : natakadyantahpatyahka-paricclieriartham utsrstdhkah.
3 utsrsta viloma-rupa srstir yatra, ViSvanatha in Sahitya-darpana.
4 It is curious that in the Bhftna, Bharata forbids the Kabs'ikl mode, which gives scope to
love and gallantry and which is eminently suitable to an erotic pUy ; but the element of Lasya
is allowel,of which, however, little trace remains in the existing specimens, but which
is probably a survival in theory of what probably was a feature in practice. D. R. Mankad
(op. cit.) puts forward the attractive, but doubtful, theory that the one-act monologue play,
the Bhana, was the first dramatic type to evolve ; but in spite of its seemingly loose dramatic
technique, it is too artificial in device to be primitive, or even purely popular in origin,
the existing specimens are late and have a distinctly literary form.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 67
only seven in the same way. Some of the minor forms are doubt-
less variations or refinements on the original Rupaka varieties, but
there is some substance in the contention 1 that, as the Natyacame
to be distinguished from the Nrtya, the Rupaka was mainly based
onjhejjla^a and the Uparupaka on the Nrtya. It is highly
possible that while the rhythmic dance was incorporating
histrionics into itself, it was at the same time developing the
minor operatic forms, in which dance and music originally
predominated, but which gradually modelled itself on the regular
drama. The Natika, for instance, is the lesser heroic and erotic
Nataka, just au the Prakaranika, admitted by some, is a lesser
Prakarana; but in both these there are opportunities of introdu-
cing song, dance and music. The Sattaka is only a variation of
the Natika in having Prakrit as the medium of expression ;
while the Trotaka, but for the musical element, is hardly dis-
tinguishable in itself from the Nataka. The remaining forms
have no representative in early literature and need not be enu-
merated here ; they show rather the character of pantomime,
with song, dance and music, than of serious drama. Whatever
scholastic value these classifications may possess, it is not of
much significance in the historical development of the drama,
for most of the varieties remain unrepresented in actual practice.
The earlier drama does not appear to subscribe fully to the rigidity
of the prescribed forms, and it is only in a general way that we
can really fit the definitions to the extant specimens.
In the theoretical works, everything is acholastically classified
and neatly catalogued ; forms of the drama, types of heroes and
heroines, their feelings, qualities, gestures, costumes, make-up,
situations, dialects, modes of address and manner of acting. All
this perhaps gives the impresssion of a theatre of living mario-
nettes. But in practice, the histrionic talent succeeds in infusing
1 Mankad in the work cit^d. The term Upartipaka is very late, the earliar designations
being Nrtyaprakara and Geyarupaka. On the technical difference between Rupaka and
Upapiipaka, see Hernacandra, Kavyanusasana, ed. NSP, Comin. p. 329 f.
68 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
blood into the puppets and translating dry formulas into lively
forms of beauty, while poetic genius overcomes learned scholas-
ticism and creates a drama from the conflict of types and
circumstances.
CHAPTER II
FKOM A3VAOEO?A TO KALI DAS A
1. ASVAGiJOSV AND HiS bCHOOL
Fifty years ago Asvaghosa was nothing more than a name,
but to-day all his important works have been published, and he
is recognised as the first great Kavya-poet and precursor of
Kalidfisa. Very little however, is known of his personal history
except what is vouchsafed by legends * and what can be gathered
from his works themselves. The colophons to his Kfivyas agree in
describing him as a Bhiksu or Buddhist monk of Saketa (Ayodhya)
and as the son of Suvarnaksi, * of golden eyes/ which was the name
of his mother. They also add the style of Acarya and Bhadanta,
as well as of Mahakavi and Mahavadin. As an easterner,
Asvaghosa's admiration of the Ramayana 2 is explicable, while it
is probable that he belonged to some such Buddhist school of
eastern origin as the Mahasanghika or the Bahusrutika.8 He
makes little display of purely scholastic knowledge ; but the
evidence of his works makes it clear that he had a considerable
mastery over the technical literature which a Sanskrit poet was
expected to possess, and a much wider acquaintance than most
other Buddhist writers of the various branches of Brahmanical
learning. His Sanskrit is not strictly faultless, but his easy
command over it is undoubtedly not inferior to that of most
1 A legendaiy biography of Asvaghosa was translated into Chinese hy Kum§rajlvc
between 401 and 409 A.D. ; extracts from it in W. Wassiljew, Der Buddhismus, St. Petersburg
I860, p. iJ81 f. Cf. J^t 1908, 11, p. 65 for Chinese authorities on the Asvagho§a legend.
2 On the poet's indebtedness to the liamayana, which Cowell and Johnston deal witl
in the introductions to their respective editions of the Buddha-carita, see also A. Gawronski
Studies about the Sanskrit-Buddhist Lit., Krakow, 1'JIU, ip, 27-40; C. W. Gurner in JASB
XX11, IU'27, p. 347 f ; Wmteruitz, HJL, 1, p. 5J'2 f.
3 See Johnston, op. cit.9 pt. II, introd., p. xxxi f.
70 HISTORY OF SANSK1UT LITERATURE
Sanskrit writers. Everywhere great respect is shown toBrahma-
nical ideas and institutions, and it is not improbable that he was
born a Brahman and given a Brahman's education before he
went over to Buddhism. The obvious interest he shows in the
theme of conversion in at least two of his works and the zeal
which he evinces for his faith perhaps fortify this presumption.
The Chinese tradition makes l Asvaghosa a contemporary and
spiritual counsellor of king Kaniska. The poet did not probably
live later than the king, and it would not be wrong to put the
lower limit of his date at 100 A.D. But 'in associating with
Asvaghosa the Sarvastivadin Vibhasa commentary on the
Abhidharma, or in naming the Vibhasa scholar Parsva or his
pupil Punyayasas as having converted Asvaghosa, the tradition,
which cannot be traced further than the end of the 4th century
and which shows more amiable than historical imagination, is
perhaps actuated by the motive of exalting the authority of this
school ; for neither the date of the commentary is certain, nor can
the special doctrines of the Sarvastivadins be definitely traced in
the unquestioned works of Asvaghosa. That he was a follower
of Hinayana and took his stand on earlier dogmatism admits of
little doubt, but he was less of a scholastic philosopher than an
earnest believer, and his emphasis on personal love and devotion
to the Buddha perhaps prepared the way for Mahayana Bhakti,
of which he is enumerated as one of the patriarchs. It is not
necessary for us to linger over the question of his scholarship or
religion ; 2 but it should be noted that, while his wide scholarship
informs his poems with a richer content, it seldom degenerates
into mere pedantry, and the sincerity of his religious convictions
1 On Chinese and other Buddhist sources concerning As"vagho§a, see S. Levi in JA,
1892, p. 201f ; 1896, II, p. 444 f ; 1908, II, p. 67 f ; 1928, II, p. 193 ; M. Anesaki in ERE, IT,
1909, p. 159 f and reff. ; T. Suzuki in the work cited below. On Kaniska 's date, see Winternitz,
HJL, II, App. V, pp. 611-14 for a summary of different views.
2 The question is discussed by Johnston in his introduction. Some doctrines
peculiar to Mabayana have been traced iu As*vaghosa's genuine works, but his date is too
early for anything other than primitive Mabayana. The recommendation of Yogacara in
Saundar&nanda XIV. 18 and XX. 68 need not refer to the YogScara school, but perhaps alludes
only to the practice of Yoga in general.
A&VAGHOSA AND HIS SCHOOL 71
imparts life and enthusiasm to his impassioned utterances, and/
redeems them from being mere dogmatic tredtises or literary
exercises.
To later Buddhism A6vaghosa is a figure of romance, and
the Chinese and Tibetan translations of Sanskrit works, made in
later times, ascribe to him a number of religious or philosophical
writings, some of which belong to developed Mahayana.1 In the
absence of Sanskrit originals, it is impossible to decide Agva-
ghosa's authorship; but since they have not much literary
pretensions it is not necessary for us to discuss the question.
Among these doubtful works, the Mahayana-£raddhotpada-£astra9
which attempts a synthesis of Vijnana-vada and Madhyamika
doctrines, has assumed importance from its being translated into
English,2 under the title ' Asvaghosa's Discourse on the Awaken-
ing of Faith/ from the second Chinese version made about 700
A.D. ; but the internal evidence of full-grown Mahayana doctrine
in the work itself puts Asvaghosa's authorship out of the ques-
tion. Another work, entitled Vajrasucl 'the Diamond-needle',8 a
clever polemic on Brahmanical caste, has also been published,
but it is not mentioned among Asvaghosa's works by the Chinese
pilgrim Yi-tsing (7th century) nor by the Bstan-hgyur, and it
shows little of Asvaghosa's style or mentality ; the Chinese
translation, which $fp made between 973 and 981 A.D., perhaps
rightly ascribes it TO Dharmakirti. Of greater interest is the
Gandl-stotra-gatlia, a small poem of twenty-nine stanzas, com-
posed mostly in the Sragdhara, metre, the Sanskrit text of which
has been restored 4 and edited. It is in praise of the Gandl, the
1 A full list is given by F. W. Thomas in Kvs, introd., p. 26 f ,
2 by T. Suzuki, Chicago 1900. Takakusu states that the earher catalogue of Chinese
texts omits the name of A6vaghosa as the author #f this work. The question of several
As"vaghosas is discussed by Suzuki and Anesaki, cited above. On this work see Winternitz,
H/L,It, pp. 36162andreff.
3 ed. and trs by Weber, Uber die Vajrasuci, in Abhandl. d. Berliner Akad., 1859,
pp. 205-64, where the problem of authorship is discussed.
4 by A. Von Stael-Holateiu, in Bibl. Buddb., no. XV, St. Petersburg 1913, and
re-edited by E. H. Johnston in I A, 1933, pp. 61-70, where the authorship of Afoaghosa has been
questioned. Of. F. W. Thomas in JRAS, 1914, p. 752 f.
72 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Buddhist monastery gong, consisting of a long symmetrical piece
of wood, and of the religious message which its sound is supposed
to carry when beaten with a short wooden club. The poem is
marked by some metrical skill, but one of its stanzes (st. 20)
shows that it was composed in Kashmir at a much later time.1
The next apocryphal work is the Siitralamkara,2 over the
authorship of which there has been a great deal of controversy.8
The Chinese translation of the work, made by KumarajTva about
405 A.D. assigns it to A£vaghosa ; but fragments of the same
work in Sanskrit were discovered in Central Asia and identified
by H. Liiders,4 who maintains that the author was Kumaralata,
probably a junior contemporary of A6vaghosa, and that the work
bore in Sanskrit the title of Kalpana-manditika or Kalpana-
lamkrtikd. As the name indicates, it is a collection of moral tales
and legends, told after the manner of the Jatakas and Avadanas in
prose and verse, but in the style of the ornate Kavya. Some of
the stories, such as those of Dirghayus and Sibi, are old, but
others clearly inculcate Buddha-bhakti in the spirit of the Maha-
yana. The work illustrates the ability to turn the tale into an
instrument of Buddhist propaganda, but it also displays wide
culture, mentions the two Indian Epics, the Samkhya and Vaise-
sika systems, the Jaina doctrines and the law-book of Manu, and
achieves considerable literary distinction. It is unfortunate that
the Sanskrit text exists only in fragments. Yuan Ghwang
informs us that Kumaralata was the founder of the Sautrantika
school and came from Taxila ; it is not surprising, therefore, that
1 A work, entitled Tridarnja-mala, is ascribed to Asvaghosa in JBORS, XXTV, 1938,
pp, 157-fiO, b-it JoLnston, ibid, XXV, 1939, p. 11 f, disputes it
2 Translated into French on the Chinese version of Kumara;iva, by Ed. Huber, Paris 1908.
3 For references Fee Tormmatsu in JAt 1931, IT, p. 135 f. Also L. de la Valise Pouasin,
VijflaptimatrasiddJn, pp. 221-24.
4 Bruchstiicke der Kalpanamanditiha des Kumaralata in Kongl Treuss Turfan-
Expeditiomn,Kleinere Sanskrit-Texte II, Leipzig 1926. The fragments are valuable, but
unfortunately they are too few in number, and the work is still to be judged on the basis of the
Chinese version. Some scholars hold that A£vaghosa waa the real author, and Kumaralata
only refashioned the work ; but it is now generally agreed that A6vagho?a had nothing to do
with its composition.
AgVAGHOSA AND HIS SCHOOL 73
t he work pays respect to the Sarvastivadins, from whom the
Sautrantikas originated, or that some of its stories can be traced
in the works of the school. In two stories (nos. 14 and 31),
Kaniska appears as a king who has already passed away ; the
work, apparently written some time after Kaniska's death,
cannot, therefore, be dated earlier than the 2nd century A.D.1
The three works, which are known for certain to be Asva-
ghosa's, are : the Bnddha-carita, the Saundarananda and the
Sariputra-prakarana ; and his fame as a great Sanskrit poet rests
entirely on these. The first, in its original form of twenty-eight
cantos, known to Yi-tsing and to the Chinese and Tibetan versions,
is a complete Mahakavya on the life of the Buddha, which begins
with his birth and closes with an account of the war over the
relics, the first Council, and the reign of A^oka. In Sanskrit2
only cantos two to thirteen exist in their entirety, together with
about three quarters of the first and the first quarter ot the four-
teenth (up to st. 31), carrying the narrative down to the Buddha's
temptation, defeat of Mara and his enlightenment. It is the
work of a real poet who, actuated by intense devotion to the
Buddha and the truth ol! his doctrine, has studied the scripture
and is careful to use the authoritative sources open to him, but
who has no special inclination to the marvellous and the mira-
culous, and reduces the earlier extravagant and chaotic legends to
the measure and form of the Kfivya. Asvaghosa does not depart in
1 If, however, Harivarman, a pupil of Kumaralata, was a contemporary of Vasubandhu,
then Kumaralata could not have been a younger contemporary of Asvaghosa, but should be
dated not earlier than the 3rd century A D.
2 Ed. E. B. Cowell, Oxford 1893, containing four alditional cantos by Arartananda, a
Nepaleae Pandit of the 19th century, win records at the end that he wrote the supplement in
1830 A. D., because he could not find a complete manuscript of the te*t. Also trs. into
English by Cowell in SBE, vol. 49; into German by C. Cappeller, .lena 1922; into Italian by
C Fonnichi, Bari 1912. Re-edited more critically, and translated into English, by E. H
Johnston in 2 vols., Calcutt t 1936 (Panjab Ooiv. Orient. Publ. Nos. 31-32), which may be
consulted for bibliography of other Indian editions and for critical and exegetical contributions
to the subject by various scholars. Johnston remarks : "The textual tradition of the extant
portion is bad, and a sound edition is only made possible by comparison with the Tibetan and
Chinese translations." The Tibetan text, with German translation, under the title Da* Ltben
des Buddha von Ahagliosa, is given by F. Weller, in two parts, Leipzig 1926, 1928,
10-1343B
74 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
essentials from the received tradition, but he succeeds in infusing
into his well conceived and vivid narrative the depth of his religious
feeling and the spontaneity of his poetic emotion. Not unworthily
praised is the skilful picture he draws of the young prince
Sarvarthasiddhi's journey through the city, of the throng of fair
women who hasten to watch him pass by, of the hateful spectacle
of disease, old age and death which he encounters on the way, of
the womanly blandishments and the political arguments of
wisdom set forth by the family priest, which seek to divert the
prince's mind from brooding thoughts of resignation, as well as
of the famous night-scene of sleeping women, who in their
moment of unconsciousness present all the loathsome signs of
human misery and thereby hasten the flight of the prince from
the palace. The requirement of a battle-scene in the Kavya is
fulfilled by the pleasing variation of the spirited description of the
Buddha's fight with Mara and his hosts.1 The work is, there-
fore, not a bare recital of incident, nor is it a dry and dogmatic
exposition of Buddhist doctrine, but the Buddha-legend is con-
ceived in the spirit of the Kavya in respect of narrative, diction
and imagery, and the poet's flame of faith makes the best lines of
the poem quiver with the needed glow.
The Saundarananda2, all the eighteen cantos of which are
preserved in Sanskrit, is connected also with the story of the
Buddha; but its actual theme is the conversion of his reluctant
half-brother, Nanda, nicknamed Sundara for his handsome
appearance. Nothing more than a mention of the fact of
1 Parallelisms between As*vaghosa and Kalid&sa in some of these passages, not only in
ideas but also in diction and imagery, have been set forth in detail in Nandargikar's introduc-
tion to bis edition of Raghu-varnsa (3rd ed,, Bombay 1897, pp. 163-96) ; but the argument based
thereon that Kalidasa was earlier and As*vaghosa imitated him has not found general support
and is very unlikely.
2 Discovered and edited by Haraprasad Shastri, Bibl. Ind., Calcutta 1910; critically
re-edited and translated into English by E. H Johnston, Oxford Univ. Press, 1928, 1932
which gives full bibliography. In spite of the richer content and wider interest of the
Buddha-carita, Johnston is of opinion that " the handling of the Saundarananda is altogether
more mature and assured than that of the Buddha-carita " ; Contra Winternitz, ffIL, IJ,
p. 262 note,
AHVAGHOSA AND HIS SCHOOL 75
conversion is found in the Maharayga and the Nidana-katha ;
and the subject is perhaps too slender to support an extensive
poem. But the opportunity is taken, in the earlier part of the
poem, to expand the legend with the proper Kavya-embellish-
ments, and in the latter part, to give expression at length to the
poet's religious ideas and convictions. The first six cantos,
therefore, describe the mythical foundation of Kapilavastu, its
king, the birth of the Buddha and Nanda, the lutter's love for
his wife Sundarl, the forcible conversion of Nanda to the life of
a monk, which he intensely dislikes, his conflict of feelings, and
Sundari's lament for her lost husband. All this is pictured
skilfully in the manner and diction of the Kavya, and possesses
considerable narrative interest ; but in the rest of the poem
there is not much of description or narration except the account
of Nanda's ascent to heaven and yearning for Apsarases. Entire
space is, therefore, devoted to an impassioned exposition of the
evils of pride and lust, the vanities of the world and the joys of
enlightenment. Here, more than in the imaginative presenta-
tion of the Buddha-legend, Asvaghosa the preacher, no doubt,
gets the upper hand of Asvaghosa the poet ; but in this very
conflict between his poetic temperament and religious passion,
which finds delight in all that is delightful and yet discards it
as empty and unsatisfying, lies the secret of the spontaneity and
forcefulness which forms the real appeal of his. poetry. It
is not merely the zeal of the convert but the conviction of the
importance of what he has to say that often makes him scorn
mere verbal polish and learned ostentation and speak with an
overmastering directness, the very truth and enthusiasm of which
sharpen his gift of pointed phrasing, balance his sentences and
add a new zest to his emotional earnestness.
In this respect Asvaghosa's poetry lacks the technical finish
and subtlety of the later Kavya ; but it possesses freshness of
feeling in the simplicity and nobility born of passionate faith.
Asvaghosa is fully conversant with the Brahman ical atid Buddhi-
stic learning of his day, while his metrical skill and use of
76 HISTORY OF SANS KBIT LltERATt) ftfi
rhetorical ornaments betoken his familiarity with the poetic art1 ;
but the inherent contrast between the poet and the artist, on the
one handj and the scholar and the preacher, on the other, often
results in strange inequalities of matter and manner. At the
conclusion of his poems, Agvaghosa declares that he is writing
for a larger public, and not merely for a learned audience, for
the attainment of peace and not for the display of skill in the
Kavya. The question, therefore, whether he belongs to this
or that school of thought, or whether he employs this or that
metre or ornament in his poems is immaterial ; what is material
to recognise is that religion is not his theme, but religious
emotion, which supplies the necessary impetus and evolves its
own form of expression without making a fetish of mere rhetoric
or mere dogma. ASvagbosa is a poet by nature, a highly
cultivated man by training, and a deeply religious devotee by
conviction. This unique combination is often real and vital
enough to lift his poetry from the dead level of the commonplace
and the conventional, and impart to it a genuine emotional tone
which is rare in later poetry. What is most pleasing in his
work to modern taste is his power of combining a sense of reality
and poetry with the skill of art and scholarship. His narra-
tive, therefore^ is never dull, his choice of incident and arrange-
ment never incoherent, his diction seldom laboured and his
expression rarely devoid of elegant simplicity. If he is not a
finished artist in the sense in which his successors are, nor even
a great poet capable of great things, his poetic inspiration is
genuine, and he never speaks in a tiresome falsetto. If his poetry
has not the stress and discipline of chiselled beauty, it has the
pliability and promise of unrefined form ; it has the sincerity and
the throb; if not the perfectly ordered harmony, of full-grown music.
Agvaghosa's versatility is indicated by his third work,2 a
Prakaraija or nine-act drama, entitled 8ariputra-prakarana (or
1 On Asvagbo§a as scholar and artist, see Johnston, op. eft., pt. II, pp- xliv-lxxix.
* H. Liiders, D<ia Sftriputraprakaran>, ein Drama .des A6vagho^, in Sitzungsberichtc
d Berliner Akad., 1911, p. 388 f.
ASVAGHOSA AND HIS SCHOOL 77
3aradvatiputra°), of which only fragments on palm leaf were
discovered in Central Asia and a few passages restored by
Liiders. Fortunately the colophon exists, and the question of
authorship and name of the work is beyond doubt. Its theme
is, again, an act of conversion connected with the Buddha,
namely, that of Sariputra and Maudgalyayana, but the fragments
give us little idea of the way in which the story, well-known
from such older sources as the Mahavagya, was handled, in
having a Prakrit-speaking Vidusaka as one of the characters and
in conforming to the requirements regarding division into acts,
use of literary Prakrits,1 ornamental metrical excursions 2 and other
details, the fragments, however, afford clear testimony that
the method and technique of a fairly developed Sanskrit
drama 3 were already established in the 1st or 2nd century A.D.
This presumption is confirmed a-lso by the fragments of two
other , plays,4 which were discovered with the remains of
tSariputra-prakarana, but which bear no testimony of authorship and
may or may not have been written by ^Tsvaghosa. The first has
for its theme a Buddhist allegory, of which the details are not
clear, although a whole leaf of the manuscript has been recovered.
It has Kirti 'Fame/ Dhrti ' Firmness' and Buddhi ' Wisdom '
as characters, and apparently foreshadows such allegorical plays
as Krsnamisra's Prabodha-candrodaya of a much later time.
The Buddha himself appears, as in the drama described above,
and all the characters, so far as the fragments go, speak
Sanskrit. In having real, as well as allegorical, figures, it
1 On the Prakrits employed in this and the following plays, see Liiders in the works
cited, and Keith, HSL, pp. 85-89. The Prakrit ia literary and shows the influence of
Sanskrit.
3 The metres employed (besides Sloka) are the usual classical ones ; Arya, Upajati, Salim,
VamSastbavila, Vaaantatilaka, Malinl, Sikharinl, Harinf, Suvadanft, Sardulavikrujita and
Sragdhara.
8 Contra Sten Konow, Indische Drama, Berlin and Leipzig 1920, p. 50, but the
grounds are weak.
4 H. Liiders, Bruchstticke buddhisHscher Dramen, Kongl. Preuss. Turfan-Expen-
tionen, Kleinere Sanskrit-Texte I, Berlin 1911, The questiot of authorship is undecided ;
see Johnston, op. cit., pp. xx-xxii.
8 HlSlmV Ol? SANSKRIT
resembles more the Caitanya-candrodaya of Kavikarnapura in
its manner of treatment, but no definite conclusion is possible.
The other play appears to have been al&o intended for religious
edification, but from what remains of it we may infer that it
was a social drama of middle class life of the type of the
MTCchakatika. It concerns a young voluptuary, called simply
the Nayaka and probably named Somadatta, and his mistress
Magadhavati, apparently a courtesan converted to Buddhism.
There are also a Prince (Bhattidalaka), an ever-hungry Vidusaka,
named Kaumudagandha, a maid-servant, and a Dusta or Rogue.
The fragments are few in number and not consecutive, and it
is difficult to make out the story. But in view of the uncertainty
of the origin and antiquity of the Sanskrit Drama, these
specimens, which belong probably to the same age, are highly
interesting ; for they reveal the drama in its first appearance in a
relatively perfected form, and clearly indicate that its origin
should antedate the Christian era.
From the literary point of view, A^vaghosa's achievement,
we have seen, is marked not so much by crudity and primitive-
ness as by simplicity and moderation in language and style;
it is artistic but not in the extravagant manner of the later
Kavya. Its matter and poetic quality, therefore, are more
appealing than its manner and artistic effect. This is certainly
different from the later taste and standard of verse-making ; and
it is not surprising that with the exception of Kalidasa, who is
nearer his time, Agvaghosa exercised little influence on later
Sanskrit poets,1 although the exception itself is a sure indication
of the essential quality of his literary effort. Despite their
religious zeal, the literary works of Asvaghosa could not have
been approved whole-heartedly also by the learned monks for his
freedom of views and leaning towards Brahmanical learning.
1 The only quotation from ASveghosa in Alarpkara literature occur? in
nw5i td. Qaekwad's 0. 8., p. 18 (**Buddha>c. viii. 25), For other
see Johnston, op. cit., pp. Ixxix-lxxx, abd F. W. Thomas* Kts, intrpd., p. 29.
A£VAGHO§A AND HIS SCHOOL 79
With the Buddhist writers of the Kavya, on the other hand,
A^vaghosa was deservedly popular ; and some of their works were
modelled so closely on those of A^vaghosa that they were
indiscriminately assigned to him in later times, with the result
that the authors themselves came to be identified with him.1
Of the successors of Asvaghosa, who are to be taken into
account, not because they were Buddhists but because their
works possess a wider literary appeal, we have already spoken of
Kumaralata, one of whose works is ascribed by the Chinese tradi-
tion to Asvaghosa himself. Some of the poems 2 of Matrceta
have likewise .been attributed to A£vagho»sa by the Tibetan
tradition, one of whose famous chroniclers, Taranatba being of
opinion that Matrceta is another name for Asvaghosa ! Of the
twelve works ascribed to Matrceta in Tibetan and one in Chinese,
most of which are in the nature of Stotras and some belonging
distinctly to Mahayana, only fragments of $atapanca£atka-stotra*
and Catuhhtaka-stotraf or panegyric of one hundred and fifty
and four hundred stanzas respectively, are recovered in Sanskrit.
Botlr these works are simple devotional poems in Slokas. T hey are
praised by Yi-tsing, to whom Matrceta is already a famous poet,
and who himself is said to have translated the first work into
Chinese ; but they do not appear to possess much literary merit.
That Matrceta, in spite of his name occurring distinctly in
Yi-tsing and in the inscriptions, was confused with Asvaghosa,
may have been due to the fact that he belonged to the same school
and was probably a contemporary. A Tibetan version of another
1 Concerning the identifications, see P. W. Thomas in Album Kern, Leiden 1903,
pp. 405-08 and IAt 1903, pp 345-60; also see ERE, VIII (1915), p. 495f.
2 For a list of the works see F. W, Thomas, Kvs, introd., pp. 26-28.
3 Fragments published by S. Le*vi in JA, XVI, 1910, pp. 438-56 and L. de la Valtee
Pousain in JRAS, 1911, pp. 769-77. Siegiing is reported to have reconstructed about two-thirds
of the Sanskrit text; see Winternitz, H/L, II, p. 271 note. Both these works exist in Tibetan
and Chinese.
4 The work is called Varnan&rha-varnana in the Tibetan version and Central Asian
fragments, For a translation of this text from Tibetan, see F, W. Thomas in I A f XXVIV,
1905f pp. 145463.
£0 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
work, called Maharaja-kanika-lekha, in eighty-five stanzas,
ascribed to Matrcitra, has been translated into English by P. W.
Thomas,1 who is probably right in thinking that Matrcitra is
identical with Matrceta, and that king Kanika 'of the Kusa
dynasty addressed in this epistle of religious admonition is no
other than the Kusana king Kaniska.2
Of greater interest than the rather meagre works of
Matrceta is the Jataka-mala* of Arya Sura, which consists of
a free but elegant Sanskrit rendering, in prose and verse, of
thirty-four4 selected legends from the Pali Jdtakas and the
^Gariyii-pitaka, illustrating the Paramitas or perfections of a
Bodhisattva. Although sometimes marked by exaggeration, the
tales are edifying. They were apparently composed for supply-
ing ready illustrations to religious discourses, but the interest is
more than religious. The work reveals a close study of
A^vaghosi's manner, and is inspired by the same idea of convey-
ing in polished, but not too highly artificial, diction the noble
doctrine of universal compassion ; and it is not surprising, there-
fore, that the author should be identified sometimes with Asva-
ghosa. The attractive form in which the old stories are retold in
the Kavya-style slows that it was meant for a wider but cultivated
audience, and we have Yi-tsing's testimony, confirmed by the
existence of Chinese and Tibetan translations, that the work was
at one time popular in India and outside. Arya Sura's date is
unknown, but as another work of his5 was translated into
1 7/1, XXII, 1903, p. 345 f. The epistle ia supposed to be Matrcitra's reply declining
king Kamka's invitation to bis court. The vogue of such epistolary exhortation ia borne out
by Nagarjuna's Suhfllekha and Candragomin's Sisya-lehha.
2 But contra 8. C. Vidyabhugan iu JASB, 1910, p. 477 f.
3 Ed. H. Kern in Harvard 0. S., 1801; trs. J S. Speyer in Sacred Books of the
Buddhists, Oxford University Press, 1895. The title is a generic term, for various poets have
written ' garlands * of Jatakas.
4 The Chinese version contains only 14 stories.
For a list of other works ascribed to Xrya Sura by Chinese and Tibetan traditions,
see F. W. Thomas, Kvs, introd., p. 26 f.
AVADINA LITERATURE 81*
Chinese in 434 AD., he cannot be dated later than the 4th
century A.D. 1
2. THE AVADINA LITERATURE
Closely connected with the Jataka-mala, which is also
entitled Bodhisattvavadana-mala, are the works belonging to
what is called the Avadana literature ; for the Jataka is nothing
more than an Avadana (Pali Apadana) or tale of great deed, the
hero of which is the Bodhisattva himself. Their matter some-
times coincides, and actual Jataka stories are contained in the
Avadana works.2 The absorbing theme of the Avadanas being
the illustration of the fruit of man's action, they have a moral
end in view, but the rigour of the Karman doctrine is palliated
by a frank belief in the efficacy of personal devotion to the
Buddha or his followers. The tales are sometimes put, as in the
Jataka, in the form of narration by the Buddha himself, of a past,
present or future incident ; and moral exhortations, miracles and
exaggerations come in as a matter of course. As literary produc-
tions they are hardly commendable, but their historical interest
is considerable as affording illustration of a peculiar type of
story-telling in Sanskrit.
The oldest of these collections is perhaps the Avadana-
tataka,* which is well known from some of its interesting
narratives, but its literary merit is not high. The tales are
arranged schematically, but not on a well conceived plan,1 into
1 We do not take here into account the works of other and later Buddhist writeis,
such as the Catuh-tatalta of Sryadeya, the Suhrllekha of Nagarjuna, the Sisya-lekha and
Lokananda-nataka of Candragoroin, or the Bodhicaryavat&ra of Santideva, for they contri-
bute more to doctrine or philosophy than to literature.
2 See Serge d'Oldenberg in JRAS, 1898, p. 304; and for Avadaoa literature in
general, see L. Feer's series of articles in JA between 1578 and 1884, and introd. to his
translation of the Avadana-tataka.
3 Ed. J. 8. Speyer, BibJ. Buddh., St. Petersburg 1902-09; trs. into French by
L. Peer in Ann ale 9 du Must* Guimet, Paris 1891. An earlier but lost Asok&vadana was
composed, according to Przyluski, by a Mathurft monk about two centuries before Ktniska.
U-1348B
,82 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
ten decades, each dealing with a certain, subject, and are told
with set formulas, phrases and situations. The first four decades
deal with stories of pious deeds by which one can become a
Buddha, and include prophecies of the advent of the Buddhas ;
while the fifth, speaking of the world of souls in torments,
narrates the causes of their suffering with a tale and a lesson in
morality. The next decade relates stories of men and animals
V
reborn as gods, while the last four decades are concerned with
deeds which qualify persons to become Arhats. The legends
are often prolix, and there is more of didactic than literary
motive in the narration. The date of the work is uncertain, but
while the mention of the Dlnara as a current coin (Roman
Denarius) is supposed to indicate 100 A.D. as the upper limit,
the lower limit is supplied more convincingly by its translation
into Chinese in the first half of the 3rd century.
Hardly more interesting from the literary point of view is
the Divyavadana,1 the date of which is also uncertain, but
which, making extensive use of Kumaralata's work, cannot be
earlier than the 1st century A.D. It is substantially a Hinayfma
text, but Mahayana material has been traced in it. Being
probably a compilation of polygenotis origin, extending over
different periods of time, its matter and manner are unequal.
The prose is frequently interrupted by Gathas and pieces of
ornate stanzas, but this is a feature which is shown by other
works of this type. The language is reasonably correct and
simple ; but debased Sanskrit, marked by Prakritisms, is not
absent, and the diction is sometimes laboured and ornamental.
We have here some really interesting and valuable narratives,
specially the cycle of A^oka legends, but they are scarcely well
told ; the arrangement is haphazard and chaotic ; and the work
as a whole possesses little literary distinction. 2
1 Ed. B. B. Cowell and R. A. NeifiT Cambridge 1886. Almost all the stories Lave
been traced to other works.
1 For other collections of unpublished Avadftnts, see- Speyer and Peer, in the work*
aitcd, tnd Winternitz, H/L, II, pp. 290-92,
tAJ.K AND FABtK 83
To the first century of the Christian era probably nlso
belongs some parts of the Mahavastu,1 the ' Book of Great
Events,' even if its substantial nucleus probably took shape in
an earlier period. Although its subject is Vinaya, it contains,
besides the life-story of the Buddha, some narratives of the
Jataka and Avadana type ; but in its jumbling of confused and
disconnected matter and for its hardly attractive style, it has small
literary, compared with its historical, interest. The same remark
applies more or less to the Lalita-vistara,2 the detailed account
of the ' sport ' of the Buddha, the date of which is unknown
and origin diverse. Whatever may be its value as a biography
of the Buddha, its style is not unlike that of the Puranas. The
narrative in 'simple but undistinguished Sanskrit prose is often
interrupted by long metrical passages in mixed Sanskrit, and
its literary pretensions are not of a high order.
3. THE LITERATURE OF TALE AND FABLE
The Buddhist anecdotal literature perhaps reflects an aspect
of the literary, us well as popular, taste of the time, which liked
the telling of tales in a simple and unadorned, but distinctly
elegant, manner ; for the origin of the Sanskrit Pancatanlra and
the Prakrit Brhatkatha, which represent story-telling from
another point of view, is perhaps synchronous, although
the various extant versions of the two works belong to a much
later period. The Avadana, the didactic beast-fable and the
popular tale are indeed not synonymous. While the Avadana,
closely related to the Jataka, is clearly distinguishable as a
Buddhist gest, which has a definite religious significance, the
other two species are purely secular in object and character.
The method of story-telling is also different ; for in the Jataka
or Avadana, we have ..generally the application of a past legend
1 Ed. E. Smart, 8 vols, Paris 1882-97, \vitb detailed summary of contents and Dotes.
2 Ed. Rajendralal Mitra, Bibl. lad,, Calcutta 1877 ; English Irs. by same (up to cb,
xv), Bibl. Ind. 1881-86; re-edited by 8. Lefmunn, Halle 1902, 1S08; complete French trs
by P. B. Fouoa-u i \ Annales da Muste Guimef, Paris 1884, 1892.
8i HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
to a tale of to-day. In the Jataka the Bodhisattva tells a tale
of his past experience, but it is not narrated in the first person ;
the device of first-hand narrative, as well as of enclosing a tale^
is a feature which characterises the classical method. The
Sanskrit poetic theory ignores the Jataka and Avadana, presum-
ably because they have a religious objective and seldom rises
to the level of art, but it does not also clearly define and discri-
minate between the fable and the tale. The elaborate attempt
to distinguish between the Katha and the Akhyayika,1 as the
invented story and the traditional legend respectively, is more
or less academic, and has hardly any application to the present
case. Some of the stories of the Pancatantra are indeed called
Kathas, but one of the versions of the entire work is styled
Tantrakhyayika, while Guijadhya's work is designated as the
Great Katha. Possibly no fine distinction is meant, and the
terms Katha aud Akhyayika are employed here in the general
sense of a story. A rigid differentiation, however, cannot
perhaps be made in practice between the fable aftd the tale ;
for the different elements in each are not entirely excluded in
the other, nor isolated. The beast-fable, as typified by the
PaHcatantra^ is riot seldom enriched by folk-tale and spicy stories
of human adventure, while the tale, as represented by the
Brhatkathd^ sometimes becomes complex by absorbing some of
the elements of the fable and its didactic motive. Both these
types^ again^ should be distinguished from the prose romance, the
so-called Katha and Akhyayika^ such as the Harsa-carita and the
Kadambarl, in which all the graces ard refinements of the Kavya
are transferred from verse to prose, either to create an exuberantly
fanciful story or to vivify and transform a legend or folk-tale.
The currency of tales and fables of all kinds may be pre-
sumed from remote antiquity, but they were perhaps not used
for a definite purpose^ nor reduced to a literary form, until
1 See S. K. De, The Katba and the Akhyayika in Classical Sanskrit in BSOS, III,
p. 307f.-— Dandin tf-28> speaks of Xkhyana as a general species, in which col lectio us of tales
like the Paiicatantra were probably included,
TALE AND FABLK 85
at a comparatively late period. The ancestor of the popular tale
may have been sach Vedic Akhyanas as are preserved, for instance,
in the Rgvedic dialogue-hymn of Pururavas and UrvasI, or in
such Brahmanic legends as that of Sunah^epa ; but it is futile
to seek the origin of the beast-fable in the Rgvedic hymn of frogs
(vii. 103), which panegyrises the frogs more from a magical
than didactic motive, or in the Upanisadic parable of dogs (Gh.
Up. i. 12), which represents the dogs as searching out a leader
to howl food for them, but which may have been either a satire
or an allegory. Nor is there any clear recognition of the fable
in the Epics as a distinct literary genre, although the motifs of
the clever jackal, the naughty cat and the greedy vulture are
employed for the purpose of moral instruction. But all these,
as well as the Jataka device of illustrating the virtues of
Buddhism by means of beast-stories,1 may have suggested the
material out of which the full-fledged beast-fable developed in
the Pancatantra. In its perfected form, it differed from the
simple parable or the mere tale about beasts, in having the
latent didactic motive clearly and deliberately brought out and
artistically conveyed in a definite framework and a connected
grouping of clever stories, in which the thoughts and deeds of
men are ascribed to animals. There is nothing simple or
popular in such a form ; and the beast-fable as an independent
literary creation diverged considerably in this respect
from the popular tale, which is free from didactic presenta-
tion and in which the more or less simple ideas of the
people and their belief in myth and magic, as well as racy
stories of human life, find a direct expression. In the case
of beast-fable, again, the connexion with the courts of princes is
clearer. The popular tale, no doubt, speaks of romantic prince
and princess of a fairy land ; but the framework of collection of
beast-fables like the Paftcatantra, which is delivered in the form of
1 The Barhut Stupa reliefs, depicting some of the stories, establish the currency of the
beast-fable at least in the 2nd Century B.C.
•SO lUSlOKY OK SANSKIUT M'i'BKATUHK
instruction to tender- minded young princes in statecraft and
practical morality, leaves no doubt about one form of its employ-
ment. It is thus closely related to the Niti-^astra and Artha-
fiastra,1 but it is not directly opposed to the Dharma-^astra. The
fact is important ; for even if the beast-fable inculcates political
wisdom or expediency in the practical affairs of life, rather than
a strict code of uprightness, it seldom teaches cleverness at the
expense of morality.2
a. The Pancatantra
The only collection of beast-fable and the solitary surviving
work of this kind in Sanskrit is the Pancatantra, which has come
down to us in various forms ; but it is a work which has perhaps
a more interesting history than any in world-literature.3 There
can be little doubt that4 from the very beginning it had a
deliberate literary form. Each of its five parts, dealing respec-
tively with the themes of separation of friends (Mitra-bheda),
winning of friends (Mitra-prapti), war and peace (Samdhi-
vigraha), loss of one's gains (Labdha-nasa) and hasty action
(Apariksita-karitva), is a narrative unit in itself ; but all together
they form a perfect whole fitted into the frame of the introduction.
1 No direct influence of Kaulilya's Artha-xastra can be traced in the PaHcata.nl ra.
2 F. Edgerton in JAOS, XL, p. '271 f.
3 J. Hertel (Das Paftcatantra, seine Geschichie und seine Verbreitung, Leipzig
and Berlin, 1914, Index, p. 451 T.) records over 200 different versions of the work
known to exist in more than 50 languages (three-fourths of the languages befn?
extra-Indian) and spreading over a region extending from Java to Iceland. For a
brief re"sum6 of this history, as well as for a brief summary of the work, see Winter-
nitz, GIL, III, pp. 294-311 ; Keith, HSL, pp. 248 f, 357 f.— The question whether the indivi-
dual tales or the Indian fable itself as a species, were borrowed, in their origin, from Greece
is much complicated. Chronology is in favour of the priority of Greece, but the suggestion
that India consciously borrowed from Greece is not proved. Some points of similarity may
be admitted, but they may occur without borrowing on either side At any rate, if reciprocal
influences and exchanges occurred, India seems to have given more than it took. Benfey's
position thnt. the tale is entirely Indian, while the fable came from Greece, need not be dis-
cussed, for i'olklorists to-day no longer seek to find the bhthplaceof all tales and fublrn in
any one country.
THIS PANVATAOTRA H7
The stories are told, as in the case of the popular tale, in
simple but elegant prose, and there is no attempt at descriptive
or sentimental excursions or elaborate stylistic effects. The com-
bining of a number of fables is also a characteristic which it
shares with the popular tale, but they arc not merely emboxed ;
there is, in the weaving of disjointed stories, considerable skill in
achieving unity and completeness of effect. The insertion of a
number of general gnomic stanzas in the prose narrative is a
feature which is dictated by its didactic motive ; but the tradition
is current from the time of the Brahmanas and the Jatakas.
More interesting and novel, if not altogether original, is the device
of conveniently summing up the moral of the various stories in
pointed memorial stanzas, which are not general maxims but-
special labels to distinguish the points of individual fables. The
suggestion1 of a hypothetical prose-poetic Vedic Akhyana, in
which the verse remained fixed but the prose mysteriously dropped
out, is not applicable to the case of the blend of prose and verse
in the fable literature ; for the prose here can never drop out, and
the essential nature of the stanzas is gnomic or recapitulatory,
and not dramatic or interlocutory. There must have existed a
great deal of floating gnomic literature in Sanskrit since the time
of the Brahmanas, which might have been utilised for these
passages of didactic wisdom.
The Paflcatantra, however, is not a single text, but a
sequence of texts ; it exists in more versions than one, worked
out at different times and places, but all diverging from a single
original text. The original,2 which must have existed long before
570 A.D. when the Pahlavi version was made, is now lost ; but
neither its date nor its title nor provenance, is known with
1 H. OJdeuberg in ZDMG, XXXVII, p. 54 f ; XXXIX, p. 52 f ; also- in his Zur Geschichte
d. altindischen Prosa, Berlin 1917, p. 53 f and Lit. d. alien Indien, cited above, pp 44 f
125 f, ]53f. '
2 The idea of a Prakrit original is discredited both by Hertel and Edgerton. The
literature on the Paflcatantra is vast and scattered, but the results of the various studies will
be found summarised in the works, cited below, of these two scholars.
88 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
certainty. The character and extent of the transformation, to
which the work was subjected in course of time, make the
problem of reconstruction one of great intricacy, but the
labours of Hertel1 and Edgerton2 have succeeded in a great
measure in going back to the primary Paficatantra by a close and
detailed examination of the various existing versions. That it
originally contained five books with a brief introduction and was
called Paftcatantra, is now made fairly certain, but there is a con-
siderable discussion of the meaning of the word Tantra. It may
denote nothing more than a book or its subject-matter, but since
it occurs in the title Tantrahhyayika of one of the versions,3 it
may indicate a text of polity as an art. There is no evidence
at all of authorship ; for the name Visnusarman, applied in the
introduction to the wise Brahman who instructs, with these
stories, the ignorant sons of king Amarasakti of Mahilaropya in
Deccan, is obviously as fictitious as the names of the king and
the place. Hertel thinks that the work was composed in
Kashmir, but his arguments are inadequate ; while nothing can
be confidently inferred from the mention of Gauda or Bsyamuka
or of well known places of pilgrimage like Puskara, Varanasi,
Prayaga and Garigadvara.
The various important recensions of the Pancatantra have
been classified into four main groups,4 which represent diversity
of tradition, but all of which emanate from the lost original.
The first is the lost Pahlavi version,6 from which were derived
1 Das Paftcatantra, cited above, as well as works and editions cited below.
* The Pancatantra Reconstructed t Text, Critical Apparatus, Introduction and Translation,
2 vols., American Orient. Soc., New Haven, Conn., 1924,
3 Jacobi, however, would translate it apparently as a collection of akhyayika in tantras,
'die in bucher eingeteilte Erzahlungssammlung.' See F. W. Thomas in JRAS, 1910, p. 1347.
4 Hertel, however, believes ia two versions of one Kashrnirian recension only as the
archetype of the other three recensions, namely, the Tantr&khyayika and what be calls
'E*. — For a abort genealogical table, setting forth the relationship of tfce- four main recensions
or groups, see Edgerton, op. cit.t II, p. 48, and for a full and detailed table cf all known
versions see Penzer's Ocean of Story', Vol. V, p. 242 (also by Edgerton).
6 Made by he physician Burzoe under the patronage of Chosroes Anu0hTrwan
(581-79 A.D.) under* he title Karataka and Darnanaka.
THR PASfcATANTRA 89
the old Syriac1 and Arabic2 versions ; and it was through this
source that the Paficatantra, in a somewhat modified form, was
introduced into the fable literature of Europe. The second
is a lost North-western recension, from which the text was
incorporated into the two North-western (Kashmirian) Sanskrit
versions of Gunadhya's Brhatkatha, made respectively by
Ksemendra and Somadeva (llth century A.D.).8 The third is
the common lost source of the Kashmirian version, entitled
Tantrakhyayika,4 and of the two Jaina versions, namely, the
Simplicior Text, well known from Biihler and Kielhorn's not
very critical edition,6 and the much amplified Ornatior Text,
called Paficakhyana, of Purnabhadra (1199 A.D.).6 The fourth
is similarly the common lost source of the Southern Paficatantra,7
1 Made by Bud, a Persian Christian, about 570 A.D. under the title Kalilag wa
Damnag. Ed Schulthess, Berlin 1911.
1 Made by 'Abdullah Ibnu'l-Muquffa about 750 A.D. under the style Kallla wa
Dimna. Ed. L Cheikbo, 2nd Ed., Beyrouth 1923.
•* Brhatkatha-maftjari xvi. '255 f ; Hatha-sarii-sagaTa lx-!xiv. Leo von Mankowski baa
edited, with trans etc., (from only one imperfect MS), Kseu.endra'a version separately in Der
Auszug aus dem Paftcatanlra m Kfemendras Brhatkathamafljari, Leipzig 1892. Lacote,
Hertel and Edgerton make it probable that the original Bfhatkatha of Gunadbya did not
contain the Paflcatanlra. — S^madeva's \ersion of the Paficatantra (accordii g to Eruenau'e
computation in JAOS, LI II, 1^33, p. 125) contains 539 Slokas, while Ksemendra's in
Mankowtki's edition , haa 806 ; but deducting the stories not found in Somadeva, Ksemendra's
total would be about 270 only.
4 Ed. J. Hertel, Berlin 1910, containing two sub-versions ; also ed. J. Hertel in
Harvard 0. 8., Cambridge Mass. 1915; tra J. Hertel, 2 vols., Leipzig and Berlin 1909.
5 Bombay Skt. Ser., 1868-69 ; also ed. L. Kosengarten Bonn 3848 ; ed. K. P. Parab,
NSP, Bombay 1896 (revised Parab and V. L. Panshikar 1912). J. Hertel, Uber die Jaina
Recensionen des Paficatantra in BSGW, LIV, 1902, pp. 23-134, gives selections of text and
translation-
6 Ed J. Hertel, Harvard Orient Ser,, Cambridge Mass., 1908-12; trs into German by
Schmidt, Leipzig 1901; into English by A.W.Ryder, Chicago 1925.— Purnabhadra uses
both the Tantrakhyayika and the Simplicior text.
7 Ed. J. Hertel (Text of recension 0, with variants from recension a\ Leipzig 1906;
Text of recension o, ed. Heinrich Blatt, Leipgig 1930. See also J. Hertel, Ober einen
siidlicl.en textus amplior des Paficatantra in ZDMG, 1906-07 (containing translation of
text). Of the Nepalese version. Bk. i-iii are included in Hertel's ed. mentioned above, while
Bk. iy-v in his. ed. of Tantrakhyayikd, introd., p. xxvii. Selections from the Nepalese version
published with trs. by Bendali in JRAS, 1888, pp. 466-501. See Herte.1 in ZDM 0, LXIV,
1910, p. 58 f and Dos Paftcatantra, pp. 37 f , 818 f,
J2— 1848B
(JO HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
the Nepalese version and the Bengali Hitopadega.1 A detailed
study of the character and interrelation of the various recensions
and versions is not possible here, but some of their general
characteristics may be briefly noted. The Tantrakhyayika is
perhaps the oldest Sanskrit version, and preserves the original
text better and more extensively than any other version. But
none of the recensions—not even the Tantrakhyayika, the claims
of which have been much exaggerated by Hertel — represents in
its entirety the primitive text. The North-western original of
Ksemendra and Somadeva must have been a version made much
later in Kashmir. Ksemendra's fairly faithful, but dry, abstract
suffers from its brevity, but Somadeva's narrative, inspite of a
few omissions and some interruption of sequence by the introduc-
tion of extraneous tales, is normally clear and attractive. There
is a great deal of reshuffling of stories, as well as intrusion of
additional matter, in both the Simplicior and Ornatior Texts, the
former adding seven and the latter twenty-one new stories. The
Southern recension exists in several sub-versions ; it is much
abbreviated, but nothing essential appears to have been omitted,
and only one complete story (The Shepherdess and her Lovers) is
added. The Hitopadeta* which has currency mostly in Bengal,
is practically an independent work, containing only four and not
five books, by one Narayana, whose patron was Dhavalacandra
and who must have lived before 1373 A.D., which is the date
of one of the manuscripts of the work. The compiler amplifies
the stories derived in the main from the Paficatantra, by drawing
upon an unknown source, considerably omits, alters, remodels
1 Repeatedly printed in India, but not yet critically edited. The better known ed.
is by P. Peterson, Bomb. Skt. Ser., 1887; also Hitopadetia nach NepaUschen Handfchrift. ed.
H. Blatt, Berlin 1980 (Roman characters). The earliest ed. is that of A. Hamilton, London
1810, and the earliest trs. by C. Wilkins, London, 1787.
2 See J. Hertel, fiber Text und Verfasser des Hitcpade&a (Bias.) Leipzig 1897,
p. 37, and Das Paficatantra, p. 38 f. In spite of omissions and alteration, the Hitopadeta
preserve! over half the entire sub-stories of the Paficatantra, and follows closely the archetype
which it shares with the Southern recension,
1'HK PA&CATANTIU 91
the sequence of books and stories, and inserts large selections of
didactic matter from Kamandaklya NUi-sara.
Although Hertel is right in believing that the Pancatantra
was originally conceived as a work for teaching political wisdom^
yet the fact should not make us forget that it is also essentially
a story-book, in which the story-teller and the political teacher
are unified, most often successfully, in one personality. There
are instances where the professed practical object intrudes itself,
and tedious exposition of polity prevails over simple and vivid
narration ; but these instances are happily not too numerous,
and the character of the work as a political text-book is never
glaring. Inequalities doubtless appear in the stories existing in
the different versions, but most of them being secondary, it can
be said without exaggeration that the stories, free from descrip-
tive and ornamental digressions, are generally very well and
amusingly told. They show the author as a master of narrative,
as well us a perfect man of the world, never departing from an
attitude of detached observation and often possessed of a con-
siderable fund of wit and humour veiled under his pedagogic
seriousness. If he makes his animals talk, he makes them talk
well and the frankly fictitious disguise of the fabliau eminently
suits his wise and amusing manner. With a few exceptions, the
individual stories are cleverly fitted together into a complex but
well planned form. The language is elegantly simple, and
the author shows taste and judgment in never saying a word
too much, except for a touch of the mock-heroic, and
in realising that over-elaboration is out of place. The gnomic
stanzas, if not the title- verses, are not always demanded by the
narrative, but they are meant to give sententious summary of
wo:ldly wisdom and impressive utterance to very ordinary, but
essential, facts of life and conduct. We do not know how
far these stanzas are original, for some of them occur in the
Epics and elsewhere ; but they are generally phrased with
epigrammatic terseness, and form an interesting feature,
in spite of the tendency to over-accumulate them. It is not
92 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITEKATURTJ
without reason, therefore, that the work enjoyed, and still enjoys,
such unrivalled popularity as a great story-book in so many
different times and lands.
b. The Brhatkathd of Gunadhya
The popular tale is represented by a number of works in
Sanskrit, but the earliest appears to have been the Brhatkatha, or
' the Great Story/ of Gunadhya, the Prakrit original of which is
lost, but which is now known from three comparatively late
Sanskrit adaptations. Its exact date ] cannot be determined, but
that it already received recognition before GOO A.D. is clear from
the references to its importance by Bana 2 and Subandhu3; and
there is nothing to show that it cannot be placed much earlier.
If it belongs to a period after the Christian era, it is not
improbable that the work took shape at about the same time as
the lost original of the Pancatantra ; and to assign it to the fourth
century A.D. would not be an unjust conjecture. 4 The recorded
tradition informs us that the original Brhatkathd was composed
in Paisaci Prakrit; and it is noteworthy that the literary form
which the popular tale first assumed was one in Prakrit. Like
the Pancatantra, the work of Gunadhya was undoubtedly a new
literary creation, but the medium of expression perhaps indicates
a difference in method and outlook.
J On the question of date and author, see J. S. Speyer, Studies about KaihSsariisdgarfi
Amsterdam 1908, p. 44 f. Biihler in his Kashmir Report summarily places the work in tin
first centnry A.D., with ttluch F. Lac6te (Melanges Ltvi, p. 270) appears to agree; bu
S. Levi (ThMtre indien, 1801, p. 817) cautiously adjusts it to the 3rd century. See Keith in
JRAS, 3909, p. 145f. Both Dandin's Dasa-kumdra-carita and Subandhu's Vasavadattd refer
to the story of Naravahaoadatta.
3 Har§a-caritat Introductory gt. 17.
3 Ed. F. £. Hall, p. 110.
4 The alleged Sanskrit version of Durvinlta of the 6th century (R. Narasimhacbar in
L4,LXII, 1913, p. 204 and JRAS, 1913, p. 889 f; Fleet in JRAS, 1911, pp. 186 f) and the
•upposed Tamil version of the 2nd cf-ntury A. I). (S. K. Aiyungar in JRAS, 1906, p. 689 f ; a> d
Ancient India, London 1911, pp. 328, 337} are too doubtful to be of any use ror chronological
purposes. See Lacote, Euai sur Gunafyya et la Brhatkatha, Parin 1908, p. 198 f.
THE BJyiHATKATHA 93
An obviously legendary account of the origin of the work
and the personality of the author is given, with some variations,
in the introductory account of the two Kashmirian Sanskrit
versions and in the apocryphal Nepala-mahatmya 1 of a pseudo-
Puranic character. It makes Gunadhya an incarnation of
a Gana of Siva, who under a curse is born at Pratisthana on the
Godavarl and becomes a favourite of king Satavahana ; but the
king has another learned favourite in Sarvavarman, the reputed
author of the Katantra grammar. Having lost a rash wager with
Sarvavarman, with regard to the teaching of Sanskrit to the
king, who had been put to shame by the queen for his ignorance
of the language, Gunadhya abjures the use of Sanskrit
and society, and retires to the wild regions of the Vindhya hilts.
There, having learnt from another incarnated Gana of Siva
the story of the Brhatkatha, originally narrated by Siva to
ParvatI, he records it in the newly picked up local PaisacT
dialect, in 700,000 Slokas, of which only one-seventh was
saved from destruction and preserved in the work as we have it !
The Nepalese version of the legend, however, places Ciunadhya's
birth at Mathura and makes king Madana of Ujjayini his
patron; it knows nothing of the wager but makes Gunadhya, on
being vanquished by Sarvavarman, write the story in PaisacI for
no other explicit reason than the advice of a sage named
Pulastya. The legend is obviously a pious Saiva invention
modified in different ways in Kashmir and Nepal; 2 from the
reference in the Har$a-carita, one may inter that it was known
in some form to Banabhatta ; but the value of biographical and
other details te not beyond question, if Sarvavarman is
introduced, Panini, Vyadi and Vararuci-Katyayana also figure in
the legend as contemporaries, although the Nepalese compiler
does not appreciate the grammatical interest, nor' the use of
1 Given in Lacdte, op. ctt., Appendix, p. 29] f.
2 It is as a saint of Saivism that Gunu<Jbya figured in the Nepalese work, as well as
in a Cambodian inscription of about 876 A.D., which is of Saitite inspiration (S. Le"vi in JA,
94 lilbTOHY Ot SANSKRIT LIT UK At U HE
Prakrit. The association with Satavahana recalls one of the
brilliant periods of Prakrit literature, and probably suggests that
the employment of Sanskrit by the Ksatrapa rulers probably
found a counter-movement in favour of the patronage of Prakrit
literature; but Satavahana being a dynastic name, which may
denote any of several kings, it does not help to solve the
chronological problem.3
But much controversy has naturally centred round the
value of the Gunadhya legend regarding its testimony on the
form of the lost work and its language. The legend speaks of
Gunadhya's work being written in Sloka and in the dialect of
the wild people of the Vindhya regions, which is called the
dialect of the Pi^acas or Paigacl. Dandin, in his Kavyadarga
({. 88), appears to know the legend in some form, and states that
the work was written in the Bhuta-bhasa ; but he thinks that
it was a type of the prose romance known as Katha, in which,
of course, verse was allowed to be inserted. The three existing
Sanskrit versions are all metrical, but this need not invalidate
Dandin's statement, if Dandin can be presumed to have possessed
a direct knowledge of the work already famous in his time.
More inconclusive is the evidence regarding the nature and
location of the dialect in which the work was composed. In
accordance with the legend, the PaisacI Prakrit is localised 2 as
the dialect of the Vindhya regions lying near about Ujjayini, but it
is also maintained 3 that it was a North-western Prakrit of Kekaya
and eastern Gandhara, which is regarded as the ancestor of the
group of Dardic dialects now spoken in Kafirstan, Swat valley,
1 On the alleged Greek influence on MunAclhya's work, see Lacote, op. cit.f pp. 284-86,
who argues the opposite way to show that the Greek rommce was influenced by the Indian.
See Keith, HSL, p. 866 f.
* Sten Konow in ZDMG, LXIV, 1910, p. 95 f and JRAS, 1921> p. 244 f; Keith, HSL,
p. 269. Bsjas*ekhara (Kavya-rriimarpsa, p. 51) apparently holds the same view. Sten Konow's
view, in brief, is that the Pais*aci was an Indo- Aryan language spoken by Dravidians in
Central India.
3 G. Grierson iu JRAS, 1905, p. 285 f, ZDMG, LXVI, 1913, pp. 49 f, at pp. 74-8C,
JRAS, 1921, p. 424 f, as well as ia his Linguistic Survey, 1919, Vol. Ill, pt. 2 and in
Hastings, ERE, under Paigaca, Vol. X (1918), p. 43 f.
THE B9HATKATHI 95
Citral and adjacent places. The difficulty of arriving at a final
conclusion * lies in the fact that the statements of fairly late
Prakrit grammarians about Pai^acI Prakrit, as well as the doubtful
fragments cited by them as specimens,2 are meagre and uncertain.
It is also not safe to argue back from the character and location
of present-day dialects to those of a hypothetical Prakrit. The
designation Pai^acI was perhaps meant to indicate that it was an
inferior and barbarous dialect, and the sanction of a vow was
required for its employment ; but what we know about it
from Prakrit grammarians and' other sources makes it probable
that it was an artificial form of speech nearer in some respects
to Sanskrit than the average Prakrit. If it hardened / and d
alone, it is a characteristic which may be equally applicable to a
Vindhya dialect influenced by Dravidian and to a dialect of the
North-west. The question, therefore, does not admit of an easy
solution, although greater plausibility may be attached to the
linguistic facts adduced from the Dardic dialects.
The exact content and bulk of the original Brliatkatha cannot
also be determined, even to the extent to which we can
approximate to those of the original Pancatantra . We have two
main sources of knowledge, derived from Kashmir and Nepal
respectively, but both of them employ a different medium of
expression, and are neither early nor absolutely authentic.
The first is given by two metrical Sanskrit adaptations of
Kashmir, namely, the Brhatkatha-mafijar'i * ' the Bouquet of Great
1 Lacote, op. cit.t p. 51 f. Lac6te believes the Pui^acT to be based upon the Indo-Aryan
language of the North-wee/, but spoken by non-Aryan people. He suggests a via media by
stating that Gunadhya picked up the idea of the dialect from travellers from the North-west;,
I ut his sphere of work lay around Ujjayinll Cf. F. W. Thomas, Foreword to Penzer's cd. of
Ocean of Story, Vol. IV, pp. ix-x.
2 Hemacandra's Prakrit Grammar, ed. Pischel, iv. 303-24; for Markendieys , see
Grierson in JRAS, 1918, p. 391. For a discussion of the passages, see Lac6te, op. erf.,
p 201 f. Vararuci speaks of one Pais'acI dialect ; Heujacandra appears to distinguish three
varieties; Mftrkan<jeya increases the number to thirteen 1 Different localities are mentioned,
i>ut one locality is agreed upon, viz., Kekaya or N. W. Punjab.
3 Ed. Sivadatta and Parab, NSP, Bombay, 1901. Parts of it (introduction and first
two stories), translated with the Eoman text, by S. Le*vi in JA, 1885-86,
96 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT IJTERATHRE
Tale,' of the polymath Ksemendra, and the Katha-sarit-sagara,*
* the Ocean of Rivers of Tales/ of Soraadeva, the latter written
between 1063 and 1082 A.D. and the former about a quarter of a
century earlier. 2 Like Somndeva's work, that of Ksemendra is
divided into eighteen Lambhakas,3 but it is of the nature of a
condensed abstract, industriously and perhaps (as his other
Mafijaris show) faithfully compiled. It consists of about 7,5 "0
31okas, as against more than 21,000 of Somadeva's work ; but
Ksemendra makes up for the brevity and dreariness of his
narrative by a number of elegant, but mannered, descriptive and
erotic passages.4 Somadeva, on the other hand, is not anxious
to abridge ; but he shows considerable restraint in avoiding
useless elaboration, and tells his stories with evident zest and in
a clear and attractive manner. At one time it was thought that
these two Kashmirian versions drew directly from the Prakrit
original, but the idea has now been discarded, not only from the
comparative evidence of their contents, but also in view of the
discovery in Nepal in 1893 of the second important source,
namely, the BrhatkatM-£loka-samgraha of Budhasvamin, 5 which
is also in Sloka, but unfortunately incomplete. Its date is un-
known, but it is assigned, mainly on the probable date and
1 Ed. Durgaprasad and Parab, NSP, Bombay 1889 (reprinted 1903, 1915 etc.). II.
Brokhaus edited i-v (with trs.), 2 vols. Leipzig 1813, and vi-viii, ix-xviii (text only) in Abb fiir
die Kunde d. Morgenlandes, II and IV, Leipzig 1862 and 18G6. The work is well known from
its Eng. trs. by C. H. Tawney under the title Ocean of Story in Bibl. Ind., Calcutta 1880-87,
reprinted with notes and essays, etc., by N. M. Penzer in 10 vols., London 1924-28.
2 See Biihler, Uber das Zeitalter des katmirisclien Didders Somadeva, Wien 1885.
Somadeva wrote the work to please SilryamatT, princess of Jalarpdbara, wife of Ananta and
mother of Kalada. Ksemendra also wrote most of his works under king Kalas*a of Kashmir.
5 The division d es not seem to be original, being missing in Budbosvamin's version,
which has Sarga division. The sections are called Gucchakas * clusters ' in Ksemendra, and
Tarangas 'billows ' in Soraadeva, according to the respective titles of their "works.
* On these descriptive passages, see Speyer, op. ct£., p. 17 f. Speyer estimates that
Ksemendra 's work contains 7,561 gltkas, Somadeva's 21,388.
5 Ed. F. Lacdte, with trs,, Paris 1908-29 (i-xxviii). The work was first discovered
by Haraprasad Sastri in Nepal, but its importance wag not realised till Lac6te edited the
work and published the results of his investigations. The MS is from Nepal, but otherwise
there is no sign of the Nepalese origin of the work.
THE BRHATKATHA 97
tradition of the manuscript, to the 8th or 9th century A.D.
Although this work is a fragment of 28 Sargas and 4,539 stanzas,
and also, as its name implies, an abbreviated abstract, its
evidence is highly important regarding the existence of two
distinct traditions of the text, which show considerable and
remarkable divergences.1
Tbe main theme of both the recensions appears to be the
adventures of Naravahanadatta, son of the gay and amorous
Udayana, famed in Sanskrit literature, and bis final attainment
of Madanamanjuka as his bride and the land of the Vidyadharas
as his empire; but in the course of the achievement, he visits
many lands and contracts a large number of marriages with
beautiful maidens of all kinds and ranks. A vital difference,
however, occurs in the treatment of the theme. While the
Nepalese recension concentrates upon the main theme and gives
a simple and connected narrative, comparatively free from
extraneous matters, the Kashtnirian recension is encumbered
by a stupendous mass of episodic stories, indiscriminately accu-
mulated and remotely connected, regardless of the constant
break and obscuration of the original theme. The Nepalese
recension, for instance, ornits the introductory Gunadhya
legend, which occurs in the Kashmirian, and plunges at once
into the story of Gopala and Palaka and of the love of Gopala's son
for Suratamanjarl, connecting it with the story of Naravahana-
datta, who is made the narrator of the tale of his twenty-six
marriages. The Kashmirian authors are apparently aware of this
beginning, but the necessity of commencing with the Gunadhya
legend and making Gunadhya the narrator of the tale makes them
shift the story of -Gopfila, Pfilaka and Suratamanjarl, and place it,
unconnectedly, as a kind of appendix at the end. The Nepalese
recension omits also the unnecessary tale of Udayana 's winning of
1 See Lac6te, Essai cited above, for a discussion of the Kashmirian versions, pp. 61-145,
the Nepalese version, pp. 146-196, comparison of the two versions, pp. 207-18, and of the
original Bfhatkatha, pp. 1-59.
98 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
PadmSvati, and does not think it desirable to provide royal ancestry
for the courtesan Kalingasena, mother of Madanamanjuka, in
order to conceal the questionable origin of the heroine. In the
Kashmirian recension, the hero Naravahanadatta does not even
pake his appearance till his birth in Bk. IV (in both versions),
but the narrative of the. hero is interrupted for two more books
by the stories of Saktivega and Suryaprabha, who, recognising
in the infant the destined emperor of the Vidyadharas, relate
their own adventures as aspirants to the same rank. In this
way, the main theme is constantly interrupted by a vast cycle
of legends, although Ksemendra and Somadeva are not in perfect
agreement, after Bk. IV, regarding the sequence and arrangement
of the extra mass of material. It is clear that both the Kash-
mirian versions do not, in their zeal for collection, succeed in
producing a unified or well-constructed work, although the
narrative of Somadeva, who is a consummate story-teller, is
marked, in spite of its bulk, by greater coherence and desire
to preserve, however strenuously, the effect of the main story.
The accretions, for example, not only bring in entirely irrelevant
stones of Mrgankadatta and Muktaphalaketu, of expedition to
the Camphor Land and the White Island for the winning of
Ratnaprabha and Alamkaravati respectively, but also incorporate
the Vikramaditya cycle of legends and interpolate versions of
the entire Paflcatantra and the Vetala-pancavim£ati. All this,
with the addition of countless number of small tales, legends
and witty stories, would justify the quaint, but appropriate,
name of Somadeva' s largest collection as the ocean of the streams
of stories, and which in their rich mass would make the over-
whelmed reader exclaim that here is indeed God's plenty !
How far these episodes and legend-cycles belonged to the
original Brhatkatha cannot be precisely determined, but it is
clear that much of them is remotely and sometimes confusedly
connected with the main theme, and is entirely missing in the
Nepalese recension. It is true that Budhasvamin's work is
speciallyc styled a ompendium (Samgraba) and that his omissions
THE BRHATKATHA V\f
may have been dictated by a desire for^ abbreviation ; it is also
possible 1 that Budhasvainin is an independent writer rather than
a mere epitomator, although he may have adhered to Gunadhya's
narrative in the main. But it is clear^ from the way in which the
thread of the main story of Naravahanadatta is kept from being
lost in an interminable maze of loosely gathered episodes, that
these interruptions or deviations from the predominant interest
could not have occurred on a large scale in the original, if we are
to presume from its reputation that it was a work of no small
literary merit. It seems, therefore, that Budhasvamin follows
the original with greater fidelity 2 than Ksemendra and Somadeva,
who, apart from minor stories which they individually insert,
are following a recension refashioned and much enlarged in
Kashmir. In this recension the central theme appears to occupy,
after the fashion of Kavya-poets, a subordinate interest; their
essentials are often abridged and throughout sacrificed to the
uluborutioii of subsidiary adventures, as well as to a somewhat
confused insertion of tales derived from other sources. Whether
this Kashinirian recension was in Pai&lc! or in Sanskrit is
not known ; but Somadeva distinctly speaks of having altered
the language, and there are not enough verbal similarities3
between Somadeva and Ksemendra to warrant the supposition
oi a common Sanskrit original.
In the absence of the original work of Gunadhya, an estimate
of its literary merit would be futile. Each of the three adap-
tations have their own characteristics, which may or may not
have been inherited from the original. Ksemendra 's abridged
compilation is rapid, dreary and uninspiring, except in orna-
mental passages," which doubtless show the influence of the
Kavya. Somadeva' s larger and more popular masterpiece has
J Winternitz, GIL, III, pp. 315-17.
* Lac6be, Essai, p. 207 f, Lacote believes that the Kashmir recension is far removed from
the original Bfhatkatha. and was compiled about the 7th century A.D.
3 Bpeyer.oy. eft., p. 27 f,
100 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
been rightly praised for its immensely superior quality of vivid
story-telling and its elegantly clear, moderate and appropriate
style. Budhasvatnin's abstract, considered nearer to the original,
is marked by a sense of proportion both in matter and manner a
rapid narration, power of characterisation and simple description,
as well as by a more bourgeois spirit and outlook suiting the
popular tale ; but, in spite of these qualities, it is of a somewhat
prosaic cast. It is difficult to say how far all the praiseworthy
qualities, if not the blemishes, of these late versions, produced
under different conditions, were present in the primary Brhatkatha,
a verbal or even a confident substantial reconstruction of which
is wellnigh impossible. To judge, however, from the principal
theme, -stories and characters, as well ay iiom the general method
and outlook, it is possible to assert that Gunadbya must have
been a master at weaving into his simple story of romantic
adventure all the marvels of myth, magic and fairy tale, as well
as a kaleidoscopic view of varied and well-conceived characters and
situations. Although JSaravahanadatta is a prince, the story is
not one of court life or courtly adventure, nor even of heroic
ideals ; it is essentially a picture consonant with the middle class
view of life and sublimated with the romance of strange adventure
in fairy lands of fancy. It is certainly a work of larger and
more varied appeal, containing a gallery ol sketches from liie,
romantic as well as real ; and Keith is perhaps just in character-
ising it as a kind of bourgeois epic. The loves of the much-
married Naravahanaclatta are perhaps too numerous and too light-
hearted, like those of his famed father LJdayana, but his chief and
best love, Madanamanjuka, has only one parallel in Vasantasena
of the Mfcchakatika ; while in Goraukha we have a fine example of
an energetic, resourceful and wise courtier and friend. It cannot
be determined with certainty if the numerous tales of fools, rogues
and naughty women existed in the original ; but they form an
unparalleled store-house ot racy and amusing stories, which evince
a wide and intimate experience of human life and are in keeping
with the humour and robust good sense of people at large.
DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BHISA 1UJL
4. THE DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BH&SA
From the dramatic fragments of Asvaghosa it is not unreason-
able to assume that between him and Kalidasa, there intervened
a period of cultivation of the dramatic art, which we find fully
developed in the dramas of Kalidasa, and which is warranted by
Kalidasa's own references to the works of Bhasa, Somila and
Kaviputra. Of the dramatic works of the last two authors we
know nothing, but a great deal of facts and fancies are now avail-
able about Bhasa's dramas.
Before 1912 Bhasa was known only by reputation, having
been honoured by Kalidasa and Bana as a great predecessor and
author of a number of plays, and praised and cited by a succes-
sion of writers in later times1 ; but since then, much discussion
has centred round his name with the alleged discovery of his
original dramas. Between 1912 and 1915, T. Ganapati Sastri
published from Trivandrum thirteen plays of varying size and
merit, which bore no evidence of authorship, but which, on
account of certain remarkable characteristics, he ascribed to the
far-famed Bhasa. All the plays appear to have been based upon
legendary material, but some draw their theine iruin the Epic
and Puranic sources. From the Kamayaim, we have the Pratima
and the Abhise/ca ; from the Mahabharata, the Madhyama,
Duta-vakya, Diita-ghatotkaca, Karna-bhara, Uru-bhanga and
Pancaratra ; but the Svapna-rdsavadatta, Pratijna-yaugandhara-
yariaiAvi-maraka&ud Carndatta Lave legendary or invented plots,
while the Bala-carita deals with the Puranic Krsna legend.2 The
1 8. Le*vi, TMAtre indtent Paris 18DO, i, p, 157 f and ii, pp. 31-32 gives a r&mine' of
literary itiejeiub to Llafaa km^c up to tLat time ; otLer up-to-date rel'ereocea are collected
together in Appendix 0 to C. H. Devadhar's ed, of the plays, cited below.
3 The legend is, of course, also found in the Harivarpja.— All the plays are available in a
handy form i&'Bhasa->na{aka-cakra or Plays ascribed to Bhdsa, published- by C, E. Devadhar,
Poona 1937, but it is better to conHult the origiual Trivandrum editions, to which references
are givtn below. Trs. into English in two volumes by W. C. Woolner and L. Samp, Oxford
University Press, 1030-31. There are also numerous editions of some of the individual
but it is not necessaiy to enumerate them here.
102 HISTORY OP SANSKRIT LITERATURE
plays were bailed with enthusiasm as the long-lost works of
Bhasa, but the rather hasty approbation of a novelty soon died
down in a whirlwind of prolonged controversy. A large number
of scholars of eminence and authority whole-heartedly supported
the attribution to Bhasa1, but the reasons adduced did not \\in
entire and universal satisfaction.2 This led to a further and
more detailed examination of the question, yielding some fruitful
results, and new facts regarding the plays were also brought to
light. Important arguments were advanced on both sides ; but
it is remarkable that there is riot a single argument on either side1
which can be regarded as conclusive, or which may not be met
with an equally plausible argument on the opposite side.8 The
problem to-day is delicately balanced ; but since emphasis may
be laid on this or that point, according to personal predilection,
scholars, with a few exception, appear to have taken up unflinch-
ing attitudes and arrayed themselves in opposite camps. Between
the two extremes lies the more sober view4 which recognises that
1 For a bibliographical note of publications on Bbasa till 1921, see V. S. Sukthankar in
JBRAS, 1921-22, pp. 230-49. The following publications after 1921 are of interest : S Levi
in JA, 1928, p. 19 f ; A.K. and K.R. Pisharoti in BSOS, III, p. 107 f ; T. Ganaputi Sastri in
JRAS, 1924, p. 668 and BSOS, ITT, p. 627 ; A. K. Pisharoti, Bhasas Worts (reprinted from
Malayalain journal, liasikaratna), Trhandrum 1925; K. R. Pisharoti in BSOS, III, p. 639, in
IHQ, I, 1925, pp. 103 f , inlJBRAS. 1925, p. 246 f ; C. K., Devadhar in ABORl, 1924-25, p. 55 f ;
C. Kunhan Raja in Zeitschr. /. Ind. und Iran, II, p. 247 f and Journal of Orient. Research,
Madras 1927, p. 232 f ; W. K. Clarke in JAOS, XLIV, p. 101 f ; F. W. Thomas in JRAS,
1922, p. 79 f, 1925, p. 130 f and 1927, p. 877 f ; Keith in BSOS, III, p. 295 f ; H, Weller in
Festgabe Harmann Jacobi, Bonn 1926, pp. 114-125 ; Winternitz in Woolner Comm. Volume
1940, p. 297 f ; A. D. Puselker, Bhasa, a Study, Lahore 1940, etc.
2 The first doubt appears to have been voiced independently by Ramavatar Sarma in
Sarada, I, Allahabad 1914-15, and by L. D. Barnett in JRASt 1919, p. 233 f and in BSOSt
1920, I, pt. 3, pp. 35-38 (also JRAS, 1921, pp. 587-89, BSOSt III, pp. 35,
519, JRASt 1925, p. 99). Among dissenters are also Bhattanatha Svarnin in I A,
XLV, 1916, pp. 189-95 ; K. R. Pisharoti in works cited above ; and Hirananda Sastri in Bhasa
and Authorship of the Trivandrum Plays in Memoirs of Arch. Surv. of India, No. 28,
Calcutta 1926 ; S. Kuppusvarui Sastri in Introd. to Saktibhadra's Ascarya-cujdmani, ed.
Balamanorama Press, Madras 1929.
3 An admirably judicious summary of the important arguments on both sides is given
by V. 8. Sukthanknr in the bibliographical note cited above, and in JBRAS, 1915, p. 126 f.
* Notably Sukthankar, cited above, and Winternitz in GIL, III, pp. 186, 645; but later
ojj \Viuternitz is reported to have expressed the opinion that he is no longer a believer in
Bhaaa'B authorship of the plays (C. R. Devadhar's Preface to the ed. cited above).
DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BHASA 103
a prima facie case for Bhasa's authorship can be made out, but
the evidence available does not. amount to conclusive proof.
It will not be profitable to enter into the details of the
controversy, but certain facts and arguments are to be taken into
account before we can enter into a consideration of the plays.
Since learned opinion is, not without reason, strangely divided ,
nothing is gained by dogmatic and sweeping assertions ; and it
should be frankly recognised that the problem is neither simple
nor free from difficulties. The first difficulty is the absence of
the name of the author, in the prologues and colophons, of all
the thirteen plays. It has been argued that this would testify
to the great antiquity of the plays ; and it has been assumed,
plausibly but without proof, that the colophons were not preserv-
ed or that such details were left out in pre-classical times. But
while nothing can be argued from our absolute lack of knowledge
of pre-classical practice, the accidental and wholesale loss of
the colophons of all manuscripts of all the thirteen plays by
the same author is an assumption which demands too much
from probability. On the other hand, the fact should be
admitted at the outset that these plays are not forgeries, but form
a part of the repertoire of a class of hereditary actors of Kerala
(Cakkyars), that manuscripts of the plays are by no means rare,
and that in omitting the name of the author, they resemble some
of the plays of other classical authors similarly preserved by actors
in Kerala. That they are not the absolutely original dramas of
Bhasa follows from this; and the assumption that they are
adaptations, in which the adapters had obvious reasons to remain
nameless, is at least not less plausible. The next argument
regarding the technique of the plays is perhaps more legitimate ;
for there is undoubtedly a lack of conformity to the dramaturgic
regulations of Bharata and his followers, which are more or less
obeyed by the normal classical drama. But the argument is not
as sound as it appears. The technical peculiarities1 relate to the
commencement of the Prologue by the Sutradhara, which is
1 M. Lindenau, Bhasa-stvdien, Leipzig 1918, pp. 30-87,
104 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
supposed to have been noticed by Bfmnbhatta, the use of the
word Sthapana for Prastavauu,, the introduction of stage-figbts
and death-scenes, the tragic ending in some plays, and the
difference 4n the Bharata-vakya. ft has been shewn in reply
that, while Bana's reference is either obscure, misunderstood or
entirely irrelevant,1 the formal features recur also in Malayalam
manuscripts of quite a number of Sanskrit plays of other .authors
and are capable of other explanations equally plausible. In the
absence of adequate knowledge of pre-classical lechnique, such
peculiarities, as are not confined to the dramas in question alone,
are hardly of decisive value ; at most, we can infer the interest-
ing existence of a different dramaturgic tradition, but this does
not prove the, antiquity of the Trivandrurn plays.
It has been also argued by the supporters of the attribution
that expressions and ideas from these plays have been borrowed
or exploited by authors like Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti. While
no strict proof or criterion of indebtedness is possible, it can be
equally well argued, on the contrary, that the author or adapter
of these anonymous plays * plagiarised the alleged passages
from standard Sanskrit authors. The citations, again, from
Bhasa, or criticisms in the rhetorical or anthological literature,2
1 It is pointed out that Bana's reference merely speaks of the Bhasa dramas
commenced by the Sutra<5hfi,ra, a characteristic which, being true of all Sanskrit playa, has no
special application here. The formula nandyanle> found in the Southern manuscripts before
and not after the N&ndf-^loka is now known to be a characteustic of most South Indian
manuscripts of Sanskrit plays in general, ami was, thus, apparently a kcal practice, \\hich
is neither material nor relevant to the discussion. It is not clear if Bana is really alluding
to such techuical jjfujovatiofcp &B the shortening of the preliminaries or the combining of the
functions of; the SutradhSr&^nd the Sthapaka. The rhetorical works are neither unanimous
nor perfectly clear regarding the jjbsltion of the vdndyanic formula or the use of the word
Sthapanft. With regard to the employment of the Bharata-vakya, again, the Tnvandrum
plays do not ^follow a uniform practice which would support any definite conclusion
regarding them. There are no such extraordinary Patakas in the Trivandrum plnys as
suggested by Bana^ description .
* The thirteen antbolopry verses ascribed to Bhfisa (one of which occurs in the
Matta-vilasa and four aie attributed to other authors) are missing in the Trivandium plays.
Even if this is suspicious, it proves nothing because of the notoriously uncertain and
fluctuating character of anthological attributions. ^ See F. W. Thomas in JIIAS, 1927f
P. 883 f.
DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BHASA 105
relied upon by the supporters of the theory, have some plausi-
bility, but they do not prove much ; for these authors do not
unfortunately name the plays from which the passages are taken,
ft is true that one of the famous dramas of Bhasa is cited and
styled Svapna-vasavadatta by some old authors1 ; but here again
the difficulty is that our present text of the Trivandrum Svapna-
nfitaka does not contain some verses quoted by certain rhetori-
cians.2 The difficulty is indeed not insuperable, inasmuch as
one can imagine that they are misquotations, or that they are
lost in the present recension ; but the wholly conjectural
character of such an explanation is obvious. The discussion
regarding references in the plays to Medhatithi's Bhasya on Manu8
or to the Artha-£dstra{ has not also proved very fruitful. And,
the least valid of all appears to be the Prakrit argument,5
which presumes that archaisms in the Prakrit of the plays
prove their earliness ; for it is now clear that some of
them are obvious blunders, and that, of those which are genuine,
archaisms of a similar type recur in the Malayalam manuscripts8
of the plays of other authors, including those of Kalidasa and
Harsa; they are apparently local developments and cannot be
made the safe basis of any chronological or literary conclusion.7
1 The argument regarding the impossibility of the plagiarism of the title does not, as
Burnett points out, carry much weight, since wo know of three Kumftra-satnbhavas.
1 Sukthankar in JBRAS, 1925, p 135 f, shews that the referenca of Bamacandra and
Grunacandra in their Natya-darpana contains a situation and a stanza, quoted from a Svopna-
r&savadatta of Bhasa, which really belongs, with some textual difference, to the Trivandrum
play. F. W Thomas in JRAS, 192R, p. 835 f, similarly deals with Abhinav-igupta's citation
missing in the Trivandrum play. C,f. also F. W. Thomas in JRAS, 1922, p 100 f.
3 Barnett in BSOS, ITT, pp. 35, 520-21 ; K«ith in BSOSt III, p. 623 f ; Suktbank*r in
JfUUS, 1925, pp. 131-82.
4 See Hirananda Sastri, op. ctt., p. 13 f.
6 W. Printz, Bhasa's Prakrit, Frankfurt 19 H ; Keith in BSOS, IIT, p. 290; V. Lesoy in
ZDAfO, LiXXH, 1918, p. 203 f ; SnkthanUr in J4OS, XL, 1920, pp. 243-59, andJBJUS,
i'J25,pp. 103-117.
* Pisharoti in BSOS, III, p. 109.
7 Sukthankar in JBRAS, 1925, p. 103 f. Even wh^re the archaisms are genuine, it
is, as H. L. Turner points out. (JRAS, 1925, p. 1?5), dangeroui to argue about date without
fall appreciation of possible dialectical differences, becmse a form may not necessarily in licate
difference of age but only a difference of dialect or locality.
106 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
The historical discussion, again, regarding the identity of
Bhasa's patron, alleged to be mentioned in the word rdjasimha
of the Bharata-vakya, is similarly shown to be of very doubtful
value.1
Leaving aside minor questions, these are, in brief, some of
the important problems that arise out of the Trivandrum plays.
It will be seen that the same material hns led to absolutely
contradictory results ; but none of the arguments advanced in
support of Bhasa's authorship is incontrovertible or reasonably
conclusive. Opinion, again, is sharply divided about the age of
the plays,2 between those who place them in the 5th century B.C.
and those who bring them down by different stages to the llth
century A.D., the estimate varying by about sixteen centuries !
It is no wonder, therefore, that the whole question has run the
normal course of enthusiastic acceptance, sceptical opposition
and subdued suggestion of a via media. But beneath all this
diversity of opinion lurks the fundamental divergence about the
literary merits of the plays, the supporters claiming high
distinction, worthy of a master-mind, and the dissenters holding
that the works are of a mediocre or even poor quality. As the
question of literary excellence is not capable of exact determina-
tion, the difference of opinion is likely to continue, according to
the personal bias of the particular critic, until some objective
factor or material would supply a conclusive solution to the
problem. But it should be made clear that the whole discussion
has now come to a point where the plays need no longer be
made the fertile ground of romantic speculations. Already
different aspects of the plays have been searchingly investi-
1 Sten Konow, Ind. Drama, p. 51, would assign the author of the plays to the reign
of Ksatrapa Rudrtsiipha I, i.e., 2nd century A.D., but the arguments are not conclusive.
Bamett conjectures that rajasimha is a proper name and refers to Paijdya Ter-Maran
Bajasirph* I (c. 676 A.D ).
1 Pee Sukfchankar, JBRAS 1923 p. 233, for different estimates of the date by different
scholars.
DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BHISA 107
gated 1 ; and even if no definite solution is yet logically justified
by the results of these intensive studies, they have helped to clear
up misconceptions, negative baseless presumptions, and bring
together a mass of material for further research.
These studies have now made it reasonable to assume that
the Trivandrum plays, whether they are by Bhasa or by some
other playwright, are of the nature of adaptations or abridge-
ments made for the stage, and they have in fact been regularly-
used as stage -plays in the Kerala country. This very important
fact should not be lost sight of in any discussion of the plays.
It explains the traditional handing down of the plays without
mention of the author's name, in closely resembling prologues,
which are probably stage-additions, as well as the coincidence of
formal technique and a large number of repetitions and parallels,
which recur in these, as also in some other Sanskrit
plays of Kerala.2 Some unquestionably old Prakritic forms and
genuine grammatical solecisms may have in this way been
fossilised and preserved, although they do not necessarily prove
the antiquity or authorship of the plays. The thirteen Trivan-
drum plays reveal undoubted similarities, not only verbal and
structural, but also stylistic and ideological, which might
suggest unity of authorship, — a theory indicated by the reference
of Bana and others to a Bhasa Nataka-cakra; but since these are
adaptations, and the originals are not known, it would be unsafe
to postulate common authorship on similarities which occur also
in plays of other known authors preserved in Kerala.
1 E.g.» on the Prakrits of the plays, by Prioiz, Sukthankar and others, as noted above ;
on lexicographical and grammatical peculiarities, by C. J. Ogden in JAOS, XXXV, 1915,
pp. 269 f (a list of solecisms are given in A pp. B in Devadhara's ed.) ; on metrical questions,
by V. 8. Sukthankar in JAOS, XLI, 1921, pp. 10730; on the sources of the Udayana
legend, by F. Lacote in JA, XIII, 1010, pp. 103-525 and P. I). Gune in ABORI, 1, 1920-21,
pp. 1-91 ; on a concordance of parallel and recurrent passages, by Sukthankar in ABORI, IV,
1923, p. 170 f: on the relationship between the Cdrudatta and fie Mrcchakattka by
Morgenstierne, Vbe^ das Verhaltnis zwischen Carndatta und Mrcchakatika, Leipzig 1921,
S. K. Belvalkar in Proc. of the First Orient Con/., 1022, p. 180 f, Sukthankar in JAOS, XLII,
1922, pp. 69-74, and J. Charpentier in JRAS, 1923, p. 599 f ; etc.
8 Some of these are collected together in Hirananda Sastri, op. cit., pp. 14-16.
10& HISTOfty 0# SANSKEIt LITERAtUftE
A modified form of the theory makes an exception in favour
of a limited number of the dramas, the merits of which have
received wice recognition. It suggests that possibly Bhasa
wrote a Svapna-vasavadatta 1 and a Pratijna-yaugandharayana,
closely related to it, of which the present texts give Malayalara
recensions, and that the present Carudatta is the fragmentary
original of the first four acts of the Mrcchakatika of Sudraka,
or at any rate it has preserved a great deal of the original upon
which Sudraka's drama is based. a But the authorship of the
remaining plays is as yet quite uncertain. It must be said that the
reasons adduced for these views undoubtedly make out a strong
case ; but they are still in a great measure conjectural, and do not
lead to any finality. It is possible also that the five one-act Maba-
bharata pieces form a closely allied group, as the surviving
intermediate acts of a lengthy dramatised version of the Maha-
bharata story; but here also we have no definite means of
ascertaining it for a fact.
In view of these difficulties and uncertainties, it is clear
that it behoves the sober student to adopt an attitude free from
susceptibility to any hasty or dogmatic conclusion. The
objective criterion proving insufficient, the ultimate question
really comes to an estimate of the literary merits of the plays;
but on a point like this, opinion is bound to be honestly diver-
gent and naturally illusive. The circumstance that all these
plays, even including the limited number which may be, with
some reason, ascribed to Bhasa, are Malayalam adaptations or
recensions of the original, causes a further difficulty; for the
plays are in a sense by Bhasa, but in a sense they are not. The
fact of their being recasts does not, of course, make them
1 Sukthankar, in JBRAS, 1925, 134 f, and Thomas in JRAS, 1928, p. 876 f, believe
that the Trivandrum Svapna has probable minor changes, but has not undergone any great
transformation.
8 Morgenstierne, Sukthankar and Belvalkar, as cited above. The C&rudatta is
undoubtedly a fragment, but from internal evidence it is probable chat the author or the
compiler never contemplated writing only four acts. It is, however, not explained why this
work alone is recovered as a fragment. See below under fiudraka.
DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BHASA 109
forfeit their connexion with the original, but the extent to which
older material has been worked over or worked up by a later
hand is unknown and uncertain. The suggestions that have
been made about distinguishing the apparently older from the
more modern matter and manner are more or less arbitrary ; for,
in spite of unquestionably primitive traits, the process involves
the difficulty of distinguishing the true Bhasa from the pseudo-
Bhasa, not merely play by play, but scene by scene, and even
verse by verse. • It must also be admitted that all the plays
are not, by whatever standard they are judged, of equal merit,
and cannot be taken as revealing the alleged master-mind. One
must feel that some of the scenes are very inferior and some of
the verses are of feeble workmanship. At the same time, it
can hardly be denied that here we have a series of plays, which
are of varying merit but not devoid ot interest ; that in part or in
entirety they may not belong to Bhasa, but they certainly
represent a somewhat different tradition of dramatic practice;
and that, if they are not as old as some critics think, they are of
undoubted importance in the literary history of the Sanskrit
drama.
Leaving aside the fragmentar} Carudatta in four acts,1 the
two dramas which have won almost universal approbation are
the Svapna-vasavadatta and the PratijM-yaiigandharayana-, and,
in spite of obvious deficiencies, the approbation is not unjust.
Both these works are linked together by external similarities and
internal correspondences ; and their theme is drawn from the
1 Ed. T. Gauapati Sastri, Trivandrucn Sansk. Ser., 1914, 1922 ; the text, along with
correspondences to Sudraka's Mfcchal{atiJ\at is reprinted by Morgenstierne, op. cit. The
fragment has no N&ndl verse, and abruptly ends with the heroine's resohe to start out for
C&rudatta's house. The dramatic incidents do not show any material divergence of a literary
significance from SudrakA's dram*. —The Bhasa play a are published in the following order by
T. Ganapati Sastri from Trivandrum : Svapna (also 1915, 1916,1923, 1924), PratijUa (also
1920), Avi.maraka, Paftcaratra (also 1017), Bala-carita, Madhyama (also 1917), Duta-vakya
(also 1918,1925), Duta-ghatotkaca, Karna-bhara and Uru-bhanga— all in 1912, the last five in
one volume, the other* separately; A bh i$eka 1913; Carudatta 1914 (also 1922) ; and
1916 (algo 19<>4).
110 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITfiRATUfcti
same legend-cycle of Udayana,1 the semi-historical beau ideal of
Sanskrit literature, whose story must have been so popularised
by the Brhatkatha that Kalidasa assures us of its great popularity
in his time at Avanti. The story of Udayana's two pretty amou-
rettes supply the romantic plot to Harsa's two elegant plays ; but
what we have here is not the mere banality of an amusing court-
intrigue. In the Pratijna, Udayana and Vasavadatta do not
make their appearance at all, but we are told a great deal about
them, especially about Udayana's accomplishments, his courage,
his love and impetuous acts. It is really a drama of political
intrigue, in which the minister Yaugandharayana, as the title
indicates, is the central figure; but it achieves a more diversified
interest than the Mudra-raksasa by interweaving the well-known
romance of Udayana's love and adventure into the plot.
Although the whole drama is characterised by simplicity and
rapidity of action, it cannot be said that the plot is clearly and
carefully developed. The ruse of the artificial elephant appears to
have been criticised by Bhamaha (iv. 40) as incredible, especially
as Udayana is described as one well-versed in the elephant-lore,
but it is a device which is not unusual in the popular tale and
need not be urged as a serious defect. It is, however, not made
clear at what stage the incident of the music lesson, alluded to
in IV. 18, actually took place,2 nor why the captive king, at
first treated with honour and sympathy, was thrown into prison
1 On the legend of Udayana, see Lacdte, cited above, and A. V. W. Jackson's intro-
duction to Priyadar$ikat p. Ixiii f and references cited therein.
2 It could not have come between Acts II and III for the jester and the mi-lister know
nothing of it ; and Udayana's famous lute is sent by Pradyota to Vasavadatta in Act II,
while Udayara lies wounded in the middle palace. In Act III we are told that Udayana, now
in prison ; somehow recovers the lute and , catches sight of Vaaavadatta, as she goes in an
open palanquin to worship at a shrine opposite the prison-gate. Nor is the music lesson
made the occpdion of the first meeting between Acts III and I / ; and yet no other version is
given in the play. Laodte is perhaps right in pointing out that the allusive waj in which
the theme is developed in these plays proves that it w«s already familiar to their audience,
and the details, which the dramatist casually introduces or omits, are to be supplied from
popular tradition. The hiatus, therefore, did not perhaps prove very serious or mateiial to the
audience of the plays.
DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BHASA 111
so that " bis fetters clank as he bows before the gods." Never-
theless, the drama finely depicts the sentiment of fidelity of a
minister who is prepared even by sacrifice of himself to bring
about a successful royal alliance. Some of the episodes,
especially the domestic scene at the palace of Mabasena Pradyota
and the amusing interlude of the intoxicated page, are skilfully
drawn ; the characterisation, especially of Yaugandharayana, is
vivid and effective ; and the sustained erotic sub-plot, despite
the non-appearance of the principal characters, enhances its main
interest of political strategy.
The much praised Svapna-vasavadatta, on the other hand,
'is less open to criticism. It is more effectively devised in plot,1
and there is a unity of purpose and inevitableness of effect.
The general story belongs to the old legend; but the motif of
the dream is finely conceived, the characters of the two heroines
are skilfully discriminated, and the gay old amourist of the
legend and of Harsa's dramas is figured as a more serious,
faithful, if somewhat love-sick and imaginative, hero. The
main feature of the play, however, is the dramatic skill and
delicacy with which are depicted the feelings of Vasavadatta, to
whose noble and steadfast love no sacrifice is too great ; while
her willing martyrdom is set off by the equally true, but helpless,
love of Udayana as a victim of divided affections and motives of
statecraft. It is a drama of fine sentiments; the movement is
smooth, measured and dignified, and the treatment is free from
the intrusion of melodrama, or of rant and rhetoric, to which
such sentimental plays are often liable. If it is rough-hewn and
unpolished, it also reveals the sureness of touch of a great
dramatist ; and to stint the word masterpiece to it is absurd and
ungenerous.
1 But there are some trifling inconsistencies and lack of inventive skill, e.g., Ute false
report of Y&savadatti'g death is made the pivot of the plot, but the audience knows from
tbe beginning that the queen is not really dead. One may, however, justify it by
Coleridge's dictum of dramatic expectation, instead of dramatic surprise.
112 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
It must be frankly admitted, however, that these
features are not possessed by the ten remaining Trivandrum
plays, although each of them possesses some striking scenes or
remarkable characteristics. Excepting the Paftcaratra, which
extends to three acts, the Mahabharata plays, whose literary
merit has been much exaggerated, consist of one act each, and
form rather a collection of slight dramatic scenes than complete
and finished dramas. But they are meant to be of a sterner
stuff, and make up by vigour what they lack in finish, although
a lurking fondness is discernible for mock-heroic or violent
situations. The Madhyama has a theme of the nature of a fairy
tale, of which there is no hint in the Epic ;*but the motif of a
father meeting and fighting his own son unawares is not original,
nor is the idea of the 'middle one/ though cleveWy applied,
unknown, in view of the Brahmana story of Sunah^epa (Ait, BTV,
vii. 15). What is original is the imagining of the situation out
of the epic tale ; but the possibilities of the theme are hardly
well-developed within the narrow limits of one act. There is
also in the Epic no such embassy of Bhima's son as is dramatised
in the Duta-ghatotkaca, which describes the tragic death of
Abhimanyu and the impending doom of the Kurus ; there is some
taunting and piquancy, but no action, and the whole scene; is
nothing more than a sketch. The Duta-v&kya is more 'directly
based on the account of the embassy of Krsna, described in the
Udyoga-parvan ; but it suffers also from the same Lack of action,
and the theme is exceedingly compressed and hardly completed.
While the introduction of the painted scroll of Draupadi is an
ingenious invention to insult the envoy effectively, the appearance
|P| Vi^nu's weapons, though original, is silly in serving no useful
dramatic purpose. In spite of its tragic note and simplification
of the original story, the Karna-bhara, which describes the sad
end of Karna, is scarcely dramatic, and the only feature which
.appeals is the elevation of Kama's character', it is not only a
one-act play but really a one-character play. The same sympathy
for the fallen hero is seen in the Uru-bhahga, Vhich represents
DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BHASA 113
the theme of Duryodhana's tragic death somewhat differently
from that of the Epic. The noble resignation of Duryodhana and
the invention of the poignant passage, which brings the biind
king and his consort on the scene and makes Duryodhana's little
son attempt to climb on his father's broken thighs, reveal some
dramatic power ; but the introductory long description of the
unseen fight is not happily conceived, and the play is also
remarkable in having as many as sixty-six stanzas in one act
alone ! The Paftcaratra, in three acts, is longer in extent, and
perhaps shows more invention and possesses greater interest. Tt
selects, from the Virata-parvan, the dramatic situation of the
Pandavas in hiding being forced into battle with the Kunis ; but
it simplifies the epic story, the details of which are freely
handled. While Trigarta's attack is omitted, Duryodhana's
sacrifice, the motif of his rash promise, Abbimanyu's presence
on the Kaurava side and capture by Bhiraa are invented; and
Duryodhana and Karna are represented in more favourable
light, Sakuni being the only villain in the piece. The number
of characters is large in proportion to its length. The play is
ingeniously titled, and there are some striking dramatic scenes;
but regarded as a story, it is far inferior to that of the Epic, and
there is no substance in the suggestion that it is closer to the
epic feeling and characterisation. The epic plays are, no doubt,
of a heroic character, but they are far remo\ed from the heroic
age ; their novelty wins a more indulgent verdict than is perhaps
justified by their real merit.
The Ramayana plays are more ambitious and much larger
in extent. The Pratima seeks, in seven acts, to dramatise, with
considerable omission and alteration, the almost entire Ramayana
story, but its interest centres chiefly round the character of
Bhar^ta and Kaikeyl. Kaikeyi is conceived as une femme incom-
prise, a voluntary victim of public calumny, to which she patiently
submits for the sake of her husband's honour and the life of
her dear step-son ; and here again we find the same sympathy
for the martyr and the persecuted. The development of the
15— ISlftR
114 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
plot is skilfully made to depend on the secrecy of Kaikeyi's
noble motive for the seemingly greedy conduct of demanding
the throne for her own son ; but for this, the plea of a Sulka
(dowry) promised to her by Dagaratha has to be substituted for
the two boons of the original, and the explanation of the secrecy
of her motive itself at the end is rather far-fetchedv The scene
of the Statue Hall is connected with the same motif and creates
a situation ; but it is hardly worked out as the key-note of the
play, as the title would suggest. The liberty taken in modifying
the scene of Sita's abduction, no doubt, substitutes a noble
motive for the vulgar one of the greed for a golden deer ; but it
fails to be impressive by making Kama a childishly gullible
person and Eavana a rather common, boastful villain. One of
the striking scenes of the drama is that of Dasaratha's sorrow and
death, which reveals a delicate handling of the pathos of the
situation ; but, on the whole, the, merits and defects of this drama
appear to be evenly balanced. \/The Abhiseka, on the other hand,
takes up the Eamayaiia story at the point of the slaying of Valin
and consecration of Sugriva, and supplies, in six acts, the epi-
sodes omitted in the other play, ending with the ordeal of S'itfl
and the consecration of Kama. The play is perhaps so named
because it begins and ends with a consecration/ But there is not
much dramatic unity of purpose behind the devious range of epic
incidents. Its main feature is the sympathetic characterisation of
Valin and Eavana, but the other figures are of much less interest.
Eama is directly identified with Visnu ; but he is here, more or
less, a. ruthless warrior, of whose treacherous slaying of Valin no
'convincing explanation is offered. In crossing the ocean, the
miracle of divided waters is repeated from the episode of
Vasudeva's crossing the Yamuna in the Bala-carita. Even if
the Abhiseka is not a dreary summary of the corresponding
parts of the Epic, it contains a series of situations rather
than a sequence of naturally developed incidents, and is
distinctly feebler in dramatic character and quality than the
bRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BHISA 115
The Bala-carita , in five acts, is similarly based upon a
number of loosely joined incidents Irom the early life of Krsna,
but there are some features which are not found in the epic and
Puranic legends.1 If they are inventions, some of them (such as
the great weight of the baby Krsna, the gushing of water from
the sands, or the incursion of Garuda and Visnu's weapons) are
clumsy and serve no dramatic purpose, while the introduction of
Oandala maidens and of KartyayanI, though bizzarre, is scarcely
impressive. The erotic episodes of Krsna's career are missing,
and the softer feeling is not much in evidence. There is a great
deal of killing in most of the epic dramas mentioned above, but
the Bala-carita perhaps surpasses them all in melodramatic* vio-
lence and ferocity. There is the slaying of the bull-demon, of
the baby-girl hurled on the stone, as well as of the two prize-
fighters and Kamsa himself, rapidly slaughtered in two stanzas!
Kamsa. however, is not an entirely wicked person, but, as a fallen
1iero, is represented with much sympathy. There is, however,
little unity or completeness of effect ; the play is rather a
dramatisation of a series of exciting incidents. As such, it is a
drama of questionable merit ; at least, it hardly deserves the high
praise that has been showered on it with more zeal than reason.
The Avi-maraka depicts the love-adventure of a prince in
disguise, whom a curse has turned, for the time being, into an
outcast sheap-killer. It is interesting for its somewhat refresh-
ing, if not original, plot, based probably on folk-tale,2 of the love
of an apparent plebeian for a princess. But from the outset it is
clearly indicated that the handsome and accomplished youth must
be other than what he seems; and the suspense is not skilfully
maintained up to the unravelling of the plot at the end. As in
the Pratijrla, the Vidusaka here is lively and interesting, but a
Brahmin companion to an apparent outcast is oddly fitted. The
denouement of a happy marriage, with the introduction of the
1 On the Kr§na legend see Winternitz in ZDMGt LXXIV, 1920, pp. 125.37.
* The motifs of recognition and of the magic ring conferring invisibility are cleaily
iniDOrta.rtf. ftlAmAnfa stl tliA rtl^t A *~',va A annoronHv f Tt m
116 fiiStORY OF SAfctSKRtT
celestial busy-body, Narada, is rather lame ; and the drama is
not free from a sentimental and melodramatic atmosphere, in
which the hero seeks suicide twice and the heroine once. For
diversion from excess of sentiment, there are amusing scenes,,
such as the dialogue of the hero with the nurse and the small
episode of the jester and the maid; but there is enough of over-
strained brooding and one long monologue in the course of the
hero's sentimental burglary, in which the question is not merely
of the number of lines, but one of vital connexion. There is,
however, no justification for the claim that the Avi-maraka is a
drama of love primitive in its expression and intensity.
It will be seen that all these plays are more or less faulty,
and are not as great as they are often represented to be. Judg-
ment must ultimately pass in respect of the Svapna and the
Pratijna, which have the greater probability, at least from the
literary point of view, of being attributed to Bhasa. They also
are not faultless ; but what appeals most to a student of the
Sanskrit drama in these, as well as in the other plays, is_tb£k,
irec ty
_ which are points often neglected in the normal
Sanskrit drama in favour of poetical excursions, sentimental
excesses and r het or ' ical _e mbej II i s h m en t.a*. The number of characters
appearing never worries our author, but the stage is never
overcrowded by the rich variety ; and, while most of the major
characters are painted with skill and delicacy, the minor ones are
not, normally, neglected/ There is considerable inventive
power ; and even if the constructive ability is not always
praiseworthy, the swift and smooth progress of the plot is seldom
hindered by the profusion of descriptive and emotional stanzas,
and monostichs are freely employed. There is no lack of
craftsmanship in transforming a legend or an epic tale into a
drama, and daring modifications are introduced, although it may
be admitted that the craftsmanship is not always admirable, nor
the modifications always well judged. The style and diction are
clear and forcible, but not uncouth or inelegant; they have little
DRAMAS ASCRIBED TO BH&SA 117
of the succulence and ' slickness ' of the ornate Kavya. Even a
casual reader will not fail to notice that the dramas do not
possess elaborate art and polish of the standard type, but that
there is, without apparent effort, vigour and liveliness of a rare
kind. The plays defy conventional rules, and even conventional
expression, but are seldomjacking in dramatic moments and
situations. Perhaps a less enthusiastic judgment would find
that most of the plays are of a somewhat prosaic cast, and miss
in them the fusing and lifting power of a poetic imagination ;
but it would be unjust to deny that they possess movement,
energy and vividness of action, as well as considerable skill of con-
sistent characterisation. There is nothing primitive in their art,
on the one hand, and nothing of dazzling excellence, on the
other, but there is an unadorned distinction and dignity, as well
as an assurance of vitality. Even after deductions are made from
exaggerated estimates, much remains to the credit of the author
or authors of the plays. Whether all the aberrations, weaknesses
and peculiarities indicate an embryonic stage of art, or* an
altogether different dramatic tradition, or perhaps an individual
trait, is not definitely known ; nor is it certain that all or any
one of these plays really belong to Bhasa and to a period of
comparative antiquity ; nor, again, can we determine the extent
and nature of the recast to which they were submitted ; but what
is still important to consider is that here we have, at least in some
of the fascinating plays like Svapna and PratijM, a dramatist
or dramatists of real power, whose unlaboured, but not forceless,
art makes a direct and vitally human appeal. The deficiencies
are patent, and a critic with a tender conscience may feel
inclined to justify them ; but they need not diminish or obscure
the equally patent merits. The dramas have wrestled with and
conquered time ; and even if we cannot historically fit them in,
they have an unmistakable dramatic, if not poetic, quality, and
this would make them deserve a place of their own in the history
of the Sanskrit drama.
CHAPTER III
KAL1DASA
Of Kalidasa's immediate predecessors we know little, and
with the doubtful exception of the plays ascribed to Bhasa, we
know still less of their works. Yet, it is marvellous that the
Kavya attains its climax in him and a state of perfection which
is never parallelled in its later history. If A6vagho§a prepared
the way and created the new poetry and drama, he did not finish
the creation ; and the succession failed. In the interval of three
or four centuries we know of other kinds of literary effort, but we
have little evidence of the type which would -explain the finished
excellence of Kalidasa's poetry. It must have been a time of
movement and productiveness, and the employment of ornate
prose and verse in the Gupta inscriptions undoubtedly indicates
the flourishing of the Kavya ; but nothing striking or decisive in
poetry or drama emerges, or at least survives. What impresses
us in Kalidasa's works is their freedom from immaturity, but this
freedom must have been the result of prolonged and diverse
efforts extending over a stretch of time. In Kalidasa we are
introduced at once to something new which no one hit upon
before, something perfect which no one achieved, something
incomparably great and enduring for all time. His outstanding
individual genius certainly accounts for a great deal of this, but
it appears in a sudden and towering glory, without being
buttressed in its origin by the intelligible gradation of lower
eminences. It is, however, the effect also of the tyrannical domi-
nance of a great genius that it not only obscures but often wipes
out by its vast and strong effulgence the lesser lights which
surround it or herald its approach.
KALIDISA 119
Of the predecessors of whom Kalidasa himself speaks, or of
the contemporaries mentioned by legends, we have very little
information. There are also a few poets who have been confused,
identified or associated with Kalidasa ; they may have been con-
temporaries or immediate successors. Most of these, however, are
mere names, and very scanty and insignificant works have been
ascribed to them by older tradition or by more modern guess-work.
Of these, the only sustained w7ork is that of Pravarasena whose
date is unknown, but who may have reigned in Kashmir in the
5th century A.D.1 He wrote the Setu-bandha or Ratana-vadha'2
in fifteen cantos, but if it is in Prakrit, it is obviously aiodelled on
the highly artificial Sanskrit Kavya. The anthologies,3 however,
assign to him three Sanskrit stanzas, but they are hardly
remarkable. Kahlana (ii-16) mentions Camlraka or Candaka as
a composer of dramas under Tunjina of Kashmir; but of him and
his work nothing is known, excepting small fragments preserved
by Srivara in his Subhasitavali; and the identity of this dramatist
with the Buddhist grammarian Candragoniin, who also composed
a drama (now preserved in Tibetan and entitled Lokananda) is
extremely hypothetical. Of Matrgupta, who is said to
have been Pravarasena's predecessor on the throne of Kashmir,
and who may or may not be identical with dramaturgist
Matrguptacarya,4 nothing remains except two stanzas contextually
attributed by the Kashmirian Kahlana in his Kaja-taraiigiy/i
1 See Peterson in Sbhvt pp. 60-61. But Stein in his translation of the Raja-tar ahgini,
i, pp. 66, 84 f, would place Pravarasena II as late as the second half of the 6th century. The
ascription of the Kauntalefoara-dautya to Kalidasa by Ksemendra and Bhoja is used to show
that Pravarasena, as the Vakat-aka ru'er of Kuntula, was a contemporary of Kalidasa, but it
is only an unfounded conjecture.
8 Ed, 8. Goldschmidt, with German trs (and word index by P. Goldschmidt), Strassburg
and London 1880,1884; ed, Sivadatta and K. P. Parab. with Skt. comm. of Ramadfcsa,
NSP, Bombay 1895.
3 Kus. introd,, pp. 64-55.
4 8. K. De, Sanskrit Poetics, i, p. 32; fragments of this writer have been collected from
citations in later works and published by T. R. Ohintamanj in the Journal of Oriental
Hetearch, Madras, U (1928), pp. 118-28.
2
L20 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
(iii. 181, 252), 1 and one by another "Kashmirian, Kgemendra,
in his Aucitya-vicara-carca (ad 22). Matrgupta, himself a
poet, is said to have patronised Mentha or Bhartraentha,
whose Hayagrlva-vadha elicited royal praise and reward. The
first stanza of this work, in Sloka, is quoted by Ksemendra,0
as well as by some commentators and anthologists,4 but it is
obviously too inadequate to give an idea of the much lauded
lost poem. Tradition associates Enlidaea also with Ghatakarpara
and Vetfilabbatta. It has been suggested K that Ghatakarpara may
be placed even earlier than Kalidasa ; but the laboured composition
of twenty-four stanzas,0 which passes under his name, hardly
deserves much notice. It reverses the motif of the Mcgha-duta
by making a love-lorn woman, in the rainy season, send a
message to her lover, and aims chiefly at displaying skill in the
verbal trick of repeated syllables, known as Yamaka, exclusively
using, however, only one variety of it, namely, the terminal. It
employs a variety of metres,7 but shows little poetic talent. Nor
1 Those are also giveu as Matrgnpba's in Sbhv, nos. 3181 and 2550. It is curious that
the fast stanza is assigned to Karpatika by Ksemendra (Attcilya-vicara ad 15).
* Kahlana, iii. 125 f, 260*62. The word mentlia means an elephant-driver, and this mean-
ing is referred to in a complimentary verse in Sml 1*1.61). The poet is sometimes called
Hastipaka. Mankhaka (ii. 53) places Mentha as a poet in the same rank with Bharavi,
Subandhu, and Bana; Sivasvamin (xx. 47) equals him with Kalidasa and Dandin ; while
Rajasekbara thinks that Valmiki re-incarnated as Mentha I
3 Suvrtta-tilaka ad iii. 16. The poem is also mentioned in Kuntaka's Vakrokti-jivita
(ed. S. K. De, Calcutta 1928, p. 243), and in the Naiya-darpana of Eamacandra and Guna-
candra (ed. GOS, Baroda 1920, p. 174).
4 Peterson, op. cit , pp. 92-94. Small fragments are preserved in Srlvara's Subhasitavali,
nos 203-204.
5 H. Jacobi, Das Ramdyana, p. 125 note. Jacobi relies mainly on the wager offered by
the poet at the close that he would carry water in a broken pitcher for any one who would
surpass him in the weaving of Yarnakas ; hut the poern may have been anonymous, and the
author's name itself may have had a fictitious origin from the wager itself The figure
Yamaka, though deprecated by Inandivardhana, is old, being comprehended by Bharata,
and need not of itself prove a late date for the poem.
6 Ed. Haeberlin in Kavya-samgraha, p. 120 f, which is reprinted by Jivananda Vidya-
sagar in his Kavya samgraha, I, Calcutta 1886, p. 357-66; ed. with a Skt. comm. by G. M.
•Durscb, Berlin 1828, with German verse trs.
7 Sundarl.-Vasantatilaka, Aupacchandasika, Rathoddhata, Pufpitagra, Upajati and
Drutavilambita, among which Rathoddhala predominates,
IUL1DASA 121
is there much gain if we accept the attribution to this poet of the
NUi-sara,1 which is simpler in diction but which is merely a
random collection of twenty-one moralising stanzas, also com-
posed in a variety of metres.2 Of the latter type is also the
Nlti-pradipa a of sixteen stanzas, which is ascribed to Vetala-
bhatta ; but some of the verses of this shorter collection are
indeed fine specimens of gnomic poetry, which has been much
assiduously cultivated in Sanskrit.1
The doubtful poems of Kalidasa, which comprise some
twenty works form an interesting subject, but no serious or com-
plete study "has yet been made of them. Some of them, such as
the elaborate Yamaka-kfivya, called the Nalodaya* in four cantos,
and the slight RakMisa-kavyn1' in some twenty stanzas, are now
1 FM ITaeberlm, op. cit.t p. 504 f ; Jivanant'U, o/>. ctt., pp. 371-80.
2 rpijfiti, $nrdiiiavikridita, Rhujarigapravnta, &loka, Vrm<taatha\ila, Vusantatilaka,
Mamlakianta, the Sioka piednminating. Some of the stanza^ are fine, but they recur in
other works and collections.
3 Ed. Haebetlin, op. at., p. 5'2fi f ; Jivnnand.i, op. at., pp. 366-72. The metres used are
ITpajati, \7aK;»ntatilaka, SardiiiavikiTdiU, Dnitaviiambita, Vamsasthavila, Mandakranta and
Sloka.
4 £.iriku is also regarded as a contemporary of Kalidasa. He cannot be identical with
Surikuka, whom Kahlana mentions as the author of the Bhucanabhyndaya, a poem now
1< st : for he belongs to the time Ajitaplda of Kashmir (about N13-16A.D.); see S. K. De,
Sanskrit Poetics, i, p. 38. Sarikuka is also cited in the Anthologies, in one of whicb he is
called son of Majiira : see Peterscn in Sbhv, p. 1'27 and G. P. Quackenbos, Poems of Maytira,
pp. TO.5'2. Perhaps to this Sankuka, cited as Amtatya ^ankuka, is also attributed a drama,
e -titled Citrotpalalambitalta Prakarana, from which a passage is quoted in the Natya-
darpana of Ramacandra and Ounarandra (p. 86).
5 Kd. with the Subodhinl comm. of the Maithila Piajftakara-tni^ra, and with introd., notes
uud trs. in Latin by P. Beuary, Berlin 1830; ed. Jngaunath Sukla, with the same comm.,
Calcutta 1870 ; also ed. W. Yates, with metrical Engl. tra., Calcutta 1844. PischeUZDMG,
LAI, p. 62fi) adduces reasons for ascribing its authorship to Ravideva, son of Narayana
and author probably also of the Rak&asa-larya. With this view R. G. Bbandarkar (Report,
1883-84, p. Ifi) Agrees. Ravideva's date is unknown, but Peterson (JBHAS, XVII,
1887, p. 69, note, corrected in Three Reports. 1887, p. 20 f) states that a commentary
on the Nalodoya is d ited in Samvat 1664 = 1608 A.D. But A. R. Ramauatha Ayyar ( JRASt
1925, p. 263) holds that the author of the Nalodaya was a Kerala poet, named Vasudeva, son
of Ravi, who lived in the court of Kuln«5ekhara and his successor Rama in the first half of the
9th century (?), and wrote also another Yamoka-k^vya, Ymlhivthira.vijaya (ed. NSP, Bombay
1897) and an unpublished alliterative poem tailed Tripura-dahana : see below under ch. vi.
6 Ed. A. Hoefer in Sanskrit Lesebuch, Berlin 1819; ed. K. P. Parab, NSP, Bombay 1890,
1900; also in Jivananda, op, cit,, III, pp, 343-53; tra, by P. Belloni-Pilippi ia GSAI, XIX,
16— 1848B
122 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
definitely known to be wrongly ascribed ; but it is possible that
some of the Kalidasa Apocrypha belongs to his contemporaries
and followers. A more serious claim for Kalidasa's authorship
is made for the Rtu-sarrihara1 as a youthful production of the
poet. It has been contested, however, that the poem may be
young, but not with the youth of Kalidasa. The Indian
tradition on the question is uncertain ; for while it is popularly
ascribed, Mallinatha, who comments on the other three poems of
Kalidasa, ignores it2 ; and the artistic conscience of Sanskrit
rhetoricians did not accept it, as they did the other three poems,
for purposes of illustration of their rules ; nor is any citation
from it found in the early anthologies. !{ The argument that the
poem is an instance of Kalidasa's juvenilia4 and is, therefore, not
taken into account by commentators, anthologists and rhetori-
cians, ignores niceties of stylo, and forgets that the poem does
not bear the obvious stigmata of the novice. ft The Indian literary
sense never thought it fit to preserve immaturities. The work is
hardly immature in the sense that it lacks craftsmanship, for its
1906, pp. 83 f. It is sometimes called Buddhiuncda ov Yid\ad\inoda Kavya, a text of which ia
published by D. R. Hacked in lHQt XIII, 1936, p. 692 f ; see 8. K. De in 1HQ, XIV,
pp. 17^-76. There is a poet named Eaksasa or Raksasa Pamlita, cited respectively in Skm
(i. 90.5) aod SP (nos. 3810-11), although the stanzas in the anthologies are not taken from the
poem. P. K. Gode (Journal of Indian Hist., XIX, 1940, pp. 812-19) puts the lower limit of
the date of the Rak^asa-Jtdvya at 1000 A. D. on the strength of the date 1159 A.D. of a
Jaina commentary on it.
1 Ed. \V. Jones, Calcutta 1792 (reproduced in fasc, hy H. Kreyenbor^r, Hannover 1924) ;
ed. with a Latin and German metrical UP. by P. von Bohlec, Leipzig 1840 ;cd. W. L.
Pansikar, \vith the comm. of Manirama, NSP, Bombay, 6th ed. 1922 (1st ed. 1906).
2 Mallinalha at the outset of his commentary on Rag1m°t speaks of only thiee Kavyaa of
Kalidasa on which he himself comn ents.
3 Excepting four stanzas in Sbliv, of which ncs. 1674, 1078 (=pts vi. 16, 19) are
assigned expressly to Kalidasa, and nos. 1703, 1704 ( — fits i. 18, 20) are cited with kayor api.
But on the 9omposite text of this anthology, which renders its tesiimor.y doubtful, see S. K. De
in J ^5,1927, pp. 109-10.
< Hillebrandt, Kalidasa, Breslau 1921, p. 66 f ; Keith in JRAS, 1912, pp. 1066-70, JRAS,
1913, pp. 410-412, HSLt pp. 82-84; J. Nobel in ZDMQ, LXVI, 1912, pp. 275-82,
LXXIII, 1919, p. 194 f and JRAS, 1913, pp. 401-10; Harichand Sastri, I/Art potti^e de
Vlnde (Paris 1917), pp. 24042.
5 B, B. Johnston, introd, to Buddha-carita, p. Ixxxi.
kALIDASA 123
descriptions are properly mannered and conventional, even if
they show some freshness of observation and feeling for nature ;
its peculiarities and weaknesses are such as show inferior literary
talent, and not a mere primitive or undeveloped sense of style.1 It
has been urged that Vatsabhatti in his Mandasor inscription
borrows expressions and exploits two stanzas of the Rtu-samhara.
The indebtedness is much exaggerated,2 but even if it is accepted,
it only shows the antiquity of the poem, and not Kalidasa's
authorship. If echoes of Kalidcisa's phrases and ideas are trace-
able (e.g. ii. 10), they are sporadic and indicative of imitation,
for there is nowhere any suggestion of Kalidasa as a whole.8 The
poem is, of course, not altogether devoid of merit ; otherwise
there would not have been so much controversy. It is not a bare
description, in six cantos, of the details of the six Indian seasons,
nor even a Shepherd's Calender, but, a highly cultured picture of
the seasons viewed through the eyes of a lover. In a sense it has
the same motif as is seen in the first part of the Megha-duta ; but
the treatment is different, and there is no community of character
between the two poems. It strings together rather conventional
pictures of kissing clouds, embracing creepers, the wildly rushing
streams and other tokens of metaphorical amorousness in nature,
as well as the effect and significance of the different seasons for
the lover. It shows Hashes of effective phrasing, an easy flow of
verse and sense of rhythm, and a diction free from elaborate
complications, but the rather stereotyped descriptions lack rich-
ness of content and they are not blended sufficiently with human
feeling.
1 This would rather rule out the suggestion that inasmuch as it shares some of Aeva-
ghosa'* weaknesses, it is a half -way house between A6vaghos.a and Kalidasa.
2 Cf. G. K, Nandargikar, Kumaradasa, Poona 1908, p. xxvi, note.
3 Very pertinently Keiih calls attention to Kalidasa's picture of spring in Kumdra0 iii and
Raghu* ix, and of summer in Raghu0 xvi (10 which scattered passages from the di aortas can also
be added); but the conclusion he draws that they respectively show the*(leveloped and undeve-
loped style of the same poet is a matter of. personal preference rather than of literary
judgment.
124 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Unlike later Sanskrit poets, who are often confident self-
puffers, Kaliclasa expresses modesty and speaks little of himself.
The current Indian anecdotes about him are extremely stupid,
and show that no clear memory remained of him. He is one
of the great poets who live and reveal themselves only in
their works. His date, and even approximate time, is at
worst uncertain, at best conjectural. His works have been
ransacked for clues, but not very successfully ; but since
they bear general testimony to a period of culture, ease and
prosperity, they have been associated with the various great
moments of the Gupta power and glory. The hypotheses and
controversies on the subject need not occupy us here, 1 for
none of the theories are final, and without further and more
definite material, no convincing conclusion is attainable.
Let it suffice to say that vsinee Kalidasa is mentioned as a
poet of great reputation in the Aihole inscription of 034
A.I)., and since he. probably knows Asvagbosa's works and
shows a much more developed form and sense of style (a
position which, however, has not gone unchallenged), " the
limits oi his time are broadly fixed between the 2nd and the
Oth century A.D. Since his works reveal the author as a
man of culture juid urbanity, a leisured artist probably
enjoying, as the legends any, royal patronage under a
1 The literature on the subject, which i» tliscuBseu1 tbtfadbarc without yielding am
definite result, is bulky and still growing. The various views, however, will he found in the
following : G Huth, Die Zeit dex Kalidaw Idiss.), Berlin J890; B Liebich, Duv Datum des
Cundruyomin's und Kalidtisa's, Breslau 1003, p. 28, an I in Indoycrni. FonchungcntXXXl,
1912-13, p. 198 f; A. Gawronski, The Diyvijaya o/ Raghn, Krakau 1914-15; Hillebrandt,
Kalidasa, Breslau 1921; Pathak in JBRAS, XTX, 1895, pp 35-43 and int-od. to Meghn-duta ;
Koith in J RAS, 1901, p. 578, 1905, p. 575, 1909, p. 433, Ind. Office Cat., Vol. 2, pt. ii,
p. 1201, SD, p. 143f ; also references cited in Winternitz, Jf/LJII, p. 40 f. P. W. Thomas,
in JRASt 1918, pp. 118-22, makea an attempt to revive the Dinnaga legend
2 See Nandurgikar, introd. to Raghu9 ; Kshetrcsh Chattopadhyay in Allahabad
Univ. Studies, IT,* p. 80 f; K G. Sankar in IHQ, I, p 312 f To argue that A6va-
gbost is later than Kalidasa is to preaurne, without t-ufficiei.t reason, a retrogressive
phase in literary evolution. •
KALlDASA J2fe
Vikraixmditya, 1 it is not unnatural to associate him with
Candragupta II (cir. 380-413 A.D.), who had the style of
Vikramaditya, and whose times were those of prosperity and
power. The various arguments, literary and historical, by
which the position is reached, are not invulnerable when
they are taken in detail, but their cumulative effect cannot
be ignored. We neither know, nor shall perhaps ever know,
if any of the brilliant conjectures is correct, but in the
present state of our knowledge, it would not be altogether
unjustifiable to place him roughly at 400 A.D. it is not
unimportant to know that Kalidasa shared the glorious and
varied living and learning of a great time ; but he might not
have done this, and yet be the foremost poet of Sanskrit
literature. That he had a wide acquaintance with the life
and scenes of many parts of India, but had a partiality for
Ujjayini, may be granted ; but it would perhaps be hazard-
ous, and even unnecessary, to connect him with any
particular geographical setting or historical environment.
Kfilidasa's works are not only singularly devoid of all
direct personal reference, but .they hardly show his poetic
genius growing and settling itself in a gradual grasp of
power. Very few poets have shown a greater lack of ordered
development. Each of his works, including his dramas, has
its distinctive characteristics in matter and manner ; it is
hardly a question of younger or older, better or worse, but
of difference of character and quality, of conception and
execution. All efforts,2 therefore, to arrive at a relative
1 8. P. Pandit (Preface to liagliu*) admits this, but believes that there is
nothing in Kalidasa's works that renders untenable (he tradition whMi assigns him to
the age of the Vikramaditya of the Samvat era, i.e., to the first century B. C. The
view baa been developed in some recent writings, but the arguments are hardly
conclusive.
2 Huth attempts to ascertain a relative chronology on the basis of metres, but
Kalidasa is too finished a metrist to render any conclusion probable on metrical evidence
alooe; see Keith's effective criticism in SD, p. 167. That Kumara* and Megka*
are both redolent of love and youth and Raghu* is mature and meditative, is not a
126 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LlTERATtJrlE
chronology of his writings have not proved very successful,
and it is not necessary to indulge in pure guess-work and
express a dogmatic opinion.
The Kumara-sambhava1 is regarded as one of Kalidasa's
early, works, but it is in its own way as admirably conceived
and expressed as his other poems. To the extent to which
it has survived, it does not, however, complete its theme, — a
defect which it shares with the Raghu-vam£a9 also apparently
left incomplete. The genuineness of the first seven cantos
of. the Kumara-sambhava is beyond doubt ; but it brings the
narrative down to the marriage of Siva and Parvati, and the
promise of the title, regarding the birth of the Kumara, is not
fulfilled. Probably canto viii is also genuine ; along with the
first seven cantos, it is commented upon by Mallinatha and
Arunagiri, and is known to writers on Poetics, who somewhat
squeamishly censure its taste iu depicting the love-sports of
adored deities ; 2 it also possesses Kfilidasa's characteristic style
and diction. The same remarks, however, do not apply to
the. rest of the poem (ix-xvii) as we have it now. These
criterion of sufficiently decisive character. The dramas also differ in quality and
character of workmanship, but it is pure conjecture lo infer from this fact their earlineea
or lateness. Similar remarks apply to the elaborate attempt of R. D. Earmarkar in
Proc. Second Orient. Conference, Calcutta 1928, pp. 239-47. It must be said that the
theories are plausible; but their very divergence from one another shows that the
question is incapable of exact determination.
1 Ed. A. F. Stenzler, with Latin trs. (i-vii, London 1838) ; ed. T. Ganapati Saatri,
with comm. of Arunagiri ind Narayana li-viii), Trivandrutn Skt. Ser. 1913-14. cantos viii-xvii
first published in Pandit, Old Series, MI, by Vitthala Sastri, 1866. Also ed. N. B.
Parvanikar, K. P. Paraband W. L. Pansikar, with oornm. of Mallinatha (i-viii) and Sitarama
(ix-xvii\ MSP, 5th ed., Bombay 1908 (10th ed. 1927); ed. with comrn. of Mallinatha, Caritra-
vardhana and Sitarama, Gujrati Printing Press, Bombay 1898. Eng* trs. by R. T. H. Griffith,
2nd ed., London 1879. It has been translated into many other languages, and edited many
times in India.— The NSP ed. contains in an Appendix Mai Hnatha's comm. on canto viii,
which is accepted as genuine in some South Inlian manuscripts and editions (see India
Office Cat , vii, p. 1419, no. 8764).
2 For a summary of the opinions, see Harichaud Sistri, Kdliddsa et I' Art
pottique de VInde, Paris 1917, p. 235 f.
KXLIDASA 127
cantos probably form a supplement 1 composed by some later
zealous admirer, who not only insists upon the birth of Kuraara
but also brings out the motive of his birth by describing his
victory over the demon Taraka. It is unbelievable that Kalidasa
abruptly left off his work ; possibly he brought it to a proper
conclusion ; but it is idle to speculate as to why the first seven or
eight cantos only survived. The fact remains that the authenti-
city of the present sequel has not been proved.
Nevertheless, apart from the promise of the title, these
genuine cantos present a finished and unified picture in
itself. The theme is truly a daring one in aspiring to
encompass the love of the highest deities ;. but, unlike the
later Greek poets to whom the Homeric inspiration was lost,
the Sanskrit poets never regard their deities as playthings of
fancy. Apart from any devotional significance which may be
found, but which Kalidasa, as a poet, never emphasised, the
theme was a living reality to him as well as to his audience;
and its poetic possibilities must have appealed to his
1 Jacob! in Verhandl d. V Orient. Knngress, Berlin 1881, JT. 2, pp. 133-5<>;
Weber in ZDMG, XXVTT, p. 174 f and in Jnd. Slreifen, 111, pp. 217 f., 211 f. The argu-
ments turn chiefly on the silence of the commentators and rhetoricians, and on
grammatical and stylistic evidence, which need not be summarised here. Although the
intrinsic evidence of taste, style and treatn ent is at best an unsafe guide, no studpnl
of Sanskrit literature, alive to literary niceties, will deny the obvious inferiority of the
supplement. The extreme rarity of MSS for these additional cantos is also significant ; and
we know nothing about the'r source, nor ab ut the source of the commentary of Sltarauaa or
them (the only notice of a MS occurring in E. L. Mitra, Notices, x, no. 3289, p. 88,. It must,
however, be admitted that, though an inferior production, the sequel is not devoid of merit
and there are ech es in it not only fiorn Kalidasa '9 works, hut also lines and phrases whirl
remind one of later great Kavya-poets. The cnly citation from it in later writings is the or<
found in Uj.'valadatta'a commentary on the Unddi-sntra, (ed. T. Aufrecht, Bonn 1859, ad iv
C6, p. 106), where the passage ravali prayalbhahata bheri-iamlhavah ig given as a qirtatioi
with iti Kumarah (and not Kumare). It occurs a? a variant of Kumara* xiv. 32« in the NSl
edition ; but it is sa»d to occur also in Kurna«>adasa's Janakl harana, which work, however
is cited by Ujjvdladatta (iii. 73) by its own name and i ofc by the name of its author. If thii
is a genuine quotation from the sequel, then the sequelmust have been added at a fairly earlj
time, at least before the 14th century A.D., unless it is shown that the passage in question is i
quotation from Kumaradasa and an appropriation by the author of the sequel. The question v,
re-opened by 8. P. Bhattacbarya in Proceedings of the Fifth Orient. Cow/., Vol. I, pp. 48-14.
128 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
imagination. We do not know exactly from what source 1 Kalidasa
derived his material, but we can infer from his treatment
of the Sakuntala legend, that he must have entirely rehnndled
and reshaped what he derived. The now mythology had life,
warmth and colour, and brought the gods nearer to human life
and emotion. The magnificent figure of the divine ascetic,
scorning love but ultimately yielding to its humanising influence,
the myth of his temptation leading to the destruction of Kama as
the emblem of human desire, the story of Uma's resolve to win
by renunciation what her beauty and love could not achieve by
their seduction, and the pretty fancy of the coming back of her
lover, not in his ascetic pride but in playful benignity, — this
poetic, but neither moralistic nor euhcineristic, working up of a
scanty Purfmic myth in a finished form is perhaps all his own.
Tf there is a serious purpose behind the poem, it is merged in its
total effect, ft is, on the other hand, not bare story-telling or
recounting of a myth; it is the careful work of a poet, whose
feeling, art and imagination invest his pictures with a charming
vividness, which is at once finely spiritual and intensely human.
His poetic powers are best revealed in his delineation of Siva's
temptation in canto iii, where the mighty effect of the few swift
words, describing the tragic annihilation of the pretty love-god
by the terrible god of destruction, is not marred by a single
word of elaboration, but produces infinite suggestiveness by
its extreme brevity and almost perfect fusion of sound and
sense. A fine example also of Kfilidasa's charming fancy and
gentle humour is to be found in the picture of the jonng
hermit appearing in Uma's hermitage and his depreciation
of Siva, which evokes an angry but firm rebuke from Umfi,
leading on to the hermit's revealing himself as the god of her
desire.
1 The story is told in MalialliSrnta, iii. 225 (Bombay ed.) and Ramdyana i 97,
known to Agvaghoea in some form, Buddha-writa, i, 88, xiii, 16.
KILiDISA 129
The theme of the Raghu-vanifa l is much more diversified
and extensivef and gives fuller scope to Kalidasa's artistic
imagination. The work has a greater height of aim and range
of delivery, but has no known predecessor. It is rather a gallery
of pictures than a unified poem ; and yet out of these pictures,
which put the uncertain mass of old narratives and traditions into
a vivid poetical form, Kalidasa succeeds in evolving one of the
finest specimens of the Indian Mahakavya, which exhibits both
the diversity and plenitude of his powers.2 Out of its nineteen
cantos there is none that does not present some pleasing picture,
none that does not possess an interest of its own ; and there is
throughout this long poem a fairly uniform excellence of style and
expression. There is hardly anything rugged or unpolished any-
where in Kalidasa, and his works must have been responsible for
setting the high standard of formal finish which grew out of all
proportion in later poetry. But he never sacrifices, as later poets
often do, the intrinsic interest of the narrative to a mere elabora-
tion of the outward form. There is invariably a fine sense of
equipoise and an astonishing certainty of touch and taste. In
the Raghu-vam£a, Kalidasa goes back to early legends for a
theme, but it is doubtful if he seriously wishes to reproduce its
spirit or write a Heldengedicht. The quality of the poem,
however, is more important than its fidelity to the roughness of
heroic times in which the scene is laid. Assuming that what he
2[ives us is only a glorified picture of his own times, the vital
question is whether he has painted excellent individuals or mere
abstractions. Perhaps Kalidasa is prone to depicting blameless
regal characters, in whom a little blatneworthiness had better
1 Ed. A. P. Stenzler, with a Latin tra., London 1832; ed. with the comm. of Mallin&tha
y S. P. Pandit, Bombay Skt. Ser.,3 vols., 1869-74, and by G. R. Nandargikar, with English
rs., 3rd revised ed., Bombay 1897; ed. with comm. of Aruiiagiri and Narfcyana (i-vi),
langalodaya Press, Trichur, no date. Often edited and translated in parts or as a whole.
8 The Indian opinion considers the Raghu-va^a to be Kalidasa's greatest poem, so th»t
3 is often cited as the Ra^hukara par excellence. Its popularity is attested by the Caret that
bout fgrty commentaries on this poem are Unown»
130 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
been blended ; but if they are meant to be ideal, they are yet
clearly distinguished as individuals ; and, granting the environ-
ment, they are far from ethereal or unnatural. Kalidasa intro-
duces us to- an old-world legend and to an atmosphere strange
to us with its romantic charm ; but beneath all that is brilliant
and marvellous, he is always real without being a realist.
The earlier part of the Raghu-vam£a accords well with its
title, and the figure of Raghu dominates, being supported by the
episodes of his father Dilipa and his son Aja ; but in the latter
part Rama is the central figure, similarly heralded by the story
of DaSaratba and followed by that of Ku6a. There is thus a
unity of design, but the entire poem is marked by a singularly
varied handling of a series of themes. We are introduced in
first canto to the vows and austerities of the childless Dilipa and
his queen Sudaksina in tending Vasistha's sacred cow and sub-
mitting to her test, followed by the birth of Raghu as a heavenly
boon. Then we have the spirited narrative of young Raghu' s
fight with Indra in defence of his father's sacrificial horse, his
accession, his triumphant progress as a conqueror, and his
generosity which threatened to impoverish him, — all of which,
especially his Digvijaya, is described with picturesque brevity,
force and skill. The next three cantos (vi-viii) are devoted to
the more tender story of Aja and his winning of the princess
IndumatI at the stately ceremonial of Svayarpvara, followed,
after a brief interval of triumph and happiness, by her accidental
death, which leaves Aja disconsolate and broken-hearted. The
story of his son Da6aratha's unfortunate hunt, which follows,
becomes the prelude to the much greater narrative of the joys
and sorrows of Rama.
In the gallery of brilliant kings which Kalidasa has painted,
his picture of Rama is undoubtedly the best ; for here we have
realities of character which evoke his powers to the utmost.
He did not obviously wish to rival Valmiki on his own ground,
but wisely chooses to treat the story in his own way. While
ftalidasa devotes one capto of nearly a hundred stanzas to the
KILlDiSA
romantic possibilities of Rama's youthful career, he next accom-
plishes the very difficult task of giving, in a single canto of not
much greater length, a marvellously rapid but picturesque con-
densation, in Valmlki's Sloka metre, of the almost entire
Rdmayana up to the end of Kama's victory over Ravana and
winning back of Sita. But the real pathos of the story of
Rama's exile, strife and suffering is reserved for treatment in the
next canto, in which, returning from Lanka, Rama is made to
describe to Sita, with the redbllective tenderness of a loving heart,
the various scenes of their past joys and sorrows over which they
pass in their aerial journey. The episode is a poetical study of
reminiscent love, in which sorrow remembered becomes bliss^
but it serves to bring out Rama's great love for Sita better than
mere narration or description, — a theme which is varied by the
pictures of the memory of love, in the presence of suffering,
depicted in the Megha-duta, and in the two lamentations, in differ-
ent situations, of Aja and Rati. Rama's passionate clinging to the
melancholy, but sweet, memories of the past prepares us for the
next canto on Sita's exile, and heightens by contrast -the grief
of the separation, which comes with a still more cruel blow at
the climax of their happiness. Kalidasa's picture of this later
history of Rama, more heroic in its silent suffering than the
earlier, has been rightly praised for revealing the poet's power of
pathos at its best, a power which never exaggerates but compress-
es the infinite pity of the situation in just a few words. The
story of Rama's son, Kusa, which follows, sinks in interest ; but
it has a remarkably poetic description of Kusa's dream, in which
his forsaken capital city, Ayodhya, appears in the guise of a
forlorn woman and reproaches him for her fallen state. After
this, two more cantos (xviii-xix) are added, but the motive of
the addition is not clear. They contain some interesting pictures,
especially that of Agnivarna at the end, and their authenticity
is not questioned ; but they present a somewhat colourless account
of a series of unknown and shadowy kings. We shall never
know whether Kalidasa intended to bring the narrative down to
132 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
his own times and connect his own royal patron with the dynasty
of Eaghu ; but the poein comes to an end rather abruptly in the
form in which we have it.1 It will be seen from this brief sketch
that the theme is not one, but many ; but even if the work has
no real unity, its large variety of subjects is knit together by the
powers of colour, form and music of a marvellous poetic imagina-
tion. Objects, scenes, characters, emotions, incidents, thoughts —
all are transmuted and placed in an eternising frame and setting
of poetry. '
The Megha-duta* loosely called a lyric or an elegy, is a much
smaller monody of a little over a hundred stanzas 3 in the stately
and melodious Mandakranta metre ; but it is no less characteristic
1 The last voluptuous king Agnivarna meets with a premature death; but he is not
childless ; one of the queens with a posthumous child is said to have succeeded. The Puranns
speak at least of twenty-seven kings who came after Agnivarna, and there is no reason why
the poem should end here suddenly, but not naturally (see S. P. Pandit, Preface, p. 15 f.
Hillebrandt, Kalidasa, p. 42 f.). It has been urged that the poet's object is to
suggest a moral on the inglorious end of a glorious line by depicting the depth to which
the descendants of the mighty Eaghu sink in a debauched king like Agnivarna, who cannot
tear himself from the caresses of his women, and who, when his loyal subjects and ministers
want to have a sight of him, puts out his bare feet through the window for them to worship 1
Even admitting this as a not unnatural conclusion of the poem, the abrupt ending is still
inexplicable. — C. Eunhan Raja (Annals of Orient. Research, Univ. of Madras, Vol. V, pt. 2,
pp. 17-40) even ventures to question the authenticity of the entire second half of the Raghu0,
starting with the story of Dadaratba ; but his reasons are not convincing.
8 The editions, as well as translations in various languages, are numerous. The
earliest editions are those of H. H. Wilson (116 stanzas) with metrical Eng. trs., Calcutta
1813 (2nd ed. 1843) ; of J. Gildemeister, Bonn 1841 ; of A. F. Stenzler, Breslau 1874. The chief
Indian and European editions with different commentaries are : With Vallabhadeva's eomrn.,
ed. E. Hultzsch, London 1911; with Mallinatha's c^rnm., ed. K. P. Parab, NSP, 4th ed.,
Bombay 1881, G. R. Nandargikar, Bombay 1894, and K. B. Pathak, Poona 1894 (2nd
ed. 1916) (both with Eng. trs.); with Daksinavartanatha's comra., ed. T. Ganapati Sastri,
Trivandrum 1919; with Purna-sarasvati'scomm., ed. K. V. Krishnamachariar, Srivanl-Vilasa
Press, Sri ran gam 1900 ; with comm. of Mallinatba and Caritravardhana, ed. Narayan Sastri
Khiste, Chowkhamba Skt. Ser., Benares 1981. English trs. by Col Jacob, Poooa 1870. For
an appreciation, see H. Oldenberg, op. cit , p. 217 f. The popularity aud currency of the
work are shown by the existence of sonce fifty commentaries.
3 The great popularity of the poem paid the penalty of interpolations, and the total
number of stanzas vary in different versions, thus : as preserved in Jinasena's Pars'va-
bhyudaya (latter part of the 8th century) 120, Vallabhsdeva (10th century^ 111, Daksina-
vartanatha (c. 1200) 110, Mallinatha (14th century) 121, Purnasarasvatl 110, Tibetan
Tersion 117, Panabokke (Ceylonese version) 118. A concordance is given in Hultzscb, as well
as a list of spurious stanzas.— On text-criticism^ bee in trod, to eds. of Stenzler, Patbak
IULIDSSA 133
of the vitality and versatility of Kalidasa's poetic powers.
The theme is simple enough in describing the severance and
yearnings of an imaginary Yaksa from his beloved through a
curse ; but the selection of the friendly cloud as the bearer of
the Yaksa's message from Raraagiri to Alaka is a novel, and
somewhat unreal, device,1 for which the almost demented condi-
tion of the sorrowful Yaksa is offered as an apology by the
poet himself. It is perhaps a highly poetical, but not an un-
natural, personification, when one bears in mind the noble mass
of Indian monsoon clouds, which seem almost instinct with life
when they travel from the southern tropical sky to the snows
of the Himalayas ; but the unreality of the poem does not end
there. It has been urged that the temporary character of a very
brief separation and the absolute certainty of reunion make the
display of grief unmanly and its pathos unreal. Perhaps the
sense of irrevocable loss would have made the motif more effect-
ive ; the trivial setting gives an appearance of sentimentality to
the real sentiment of the poem. The device of a curse, again^
in bringing about the separation — a motif which is repeated in
another form in the AbhijMna-£akuntala — is also criticised; for
the breach here is caused not by psychological complications, so
dear to .modern times. But the predominantly fanciful character
of Sanskrit poetry recognises not only this as a legitimate means,
but even departure on a journey, — on business as we should say
to-day ; and even homesickness brings a flood of tears to the
eyes of grown-up men and women !
and Hultzscb ; J. Hertel's review of Hultzscli's ed. in Gdlting. Gelehrie Anzeigen, 1912;
Macdonell in JRAS, 1913, p. 176 f. ; Harichand, op. cit.t p. 238 f. ; Herman Beckh, Bin
Beitrag zur Textkritik von Kalidasa's Meghaduta (Bias.), Berlin 1907 (chiefly on the
Tibetan version). A Sinhalese paraphrase with Eng. trs. published by the T. B. Pdnabokke,
Colombo 1888.
1 Bhamaha (i. 42) actually considers this to be a defect. The idea of sending message
may have been suggested by the embassy of Hanuraat in the Rdmayana (of. st. 104, Pathak*s
ed.), or of the Swan in the story of Nala in the Maliablulrata. Of. also Kamavilapa J&taka
(no. 297), where a crow is sent as a messenger by a man in danger to his wife. But the
treatment is Kalid&sa's own.
184 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT
It is, however, not necessary to exaggerate the artistic insuffi-
ciency of the device ; for, the attitude is different, but not the sense
of sorrow. If we leave aside the setting, the poem gives a true and
poignant picture of the sorrow of parted lovers, and in this lies its
real pathos. It is true that the poem is invested with a highly
imaginative atmosphere ; it speaks of a dreamland of fancy, its
characters are semi-divine beings, and its imagery is accordingly
adapted ; but all this does not negate its very human and
genuine expression of the erotic sentiment. Its vividness of
touch has led people even to imagine that it gives a poetic form
to the poet's own personal experience ; but of •this, onfe can never
be sure. There is little of subjectivity in its finished artistic
execution, and the lyric mood does not predominate ; but the
unmistakable warmth of its rich and earnest feeling, expressed
through the melody and dignity of its happily fitting metre,
redeems the banality of the theme and makes the poem almost
lyrical in its effect. The feeling, however, is not isolated, but
blended picturesquely with a great deal of descriptive matter.
Its intensity of recollective tenderness is set in the midst of the
Indian rainy season, than which, as Rabindranath rightly
remarks, nothing is more appropriate for am atmosphere of
loneliness and longing ; it is placed also in the midst of splendid
natural scenery which enhances its poignant appeal. The
description of external nature in the first half of the poem is
heightened throughout by an intimate association with human
feeling, while the picture of the lover's sorrowing heart in the
second half is skilfully framed in the surrounding beauty of
nature. A large number of attempts1 were made in later times to
imitate the poem, but the Megha-duta still remains unsurpassed
as a masterpiece of its kind, not for its matter, nor for its des-
cription, but purely for its poetry.
Kalidasa's deep-rooted fame as a poet somewhat obscures his
merit as a dramatist; but prodigal of gifts nature had been to
him, and his achievement in the dra$a is no less striking. In
judgment of many, his Abhifflna*£akuntala remains his
! On the DaU-kavyas, see Chintahwan Chakravarbi in IHQ, III, pp. 978-97.
KiUDISA 135
greatest work; at the very least, it is considered to be the full-
blown flower of his genius. Whatever value the judgment may
possess, it implies that in this work we have a unique alliance of
his poetic and dramatic gifts, which are indeed not contradictory
but complementary ; and this fact should be recognised in passing
from his poems to his plays. His poems give some evidence of
skilful handling of dramatic moments and situations; but his
poetic gifts invest his dramas with an imaginative quality which
prevents them from being mere practical productions of stager
craft. It is not implied that his dramas do not possess the
requisite qualities of a stage-play, for his Sakuntala has been of ten
successfully staged ; but this is not the only, much less the chief,
point of view from which his dramatic works are to be judged,
i lays often fail, not for want of dramatic power or stage-qualities,
but for want of poetry ; they are often too prosaic. It is
very seldom that both the dramatic and poetic qualities are
united in the same author. As a dramatist Kalidasa succeeds,
mainly by his poetic power, in two respects : he is a master of
poetic emotion which he can skilfully harmonise with character
and action, and he has the poetic sense of balance and restraint
which a dramatist must show if he would win success.
It is significant that in the choice of theme, character and
situation, Kalidasa follows the essentially poetic bent of his
genius. 'Love in its different aspects and situations is the
dominant theme of all his three plays, care-free love in the
setting of a courtly intrigue, impetuous love as a romantic and
undisciplined passion leading to madness, and youthful love, at
first heedless but gradually purified by suffering. In the lyrical
and narrative poem the passionate feeling is often an end in itself,
elegant but isolated ; in the drama, there is a progressive deepening
of the emotional experience as a factor of larger life. It, therefore,
affords the poet, as a dramatist, an opportunity of depicting its
subtle moods and fancies in varied circumstances, its infinite range
and intensity in closeness to common realities. His mastery of
humour and p^thos^ his wisdom apd humanity, come into play |
186 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
and his great love of life and sense of tears in mortal things inform
his pictures with all the warmth and colour of a vivid poetic
imagination.
The Malavikagniinitra1 is often taken to be one of Kalidasa's
youthful productions, but there is no adequate reason for thinking
that it is his first drjamatic work. The modesty shown in the
Prologue 2 repeats itself in those of his other two dramas, and
the immaturity which critics have seen in it is more a question
of personal opinion than a real fact ; for it resolves itself into a
difference of form and theme, rather than any real deficiency of .
power. 8 The Malavika is not a love-drama of the type of the
Svapna-vasavadatta, to which it has a superficial resemblance,
Ibut which possesses a far more serious interest. It is a light-
hearted comedy of court-life in five acts, in which love is a pretty
game, and in which the hero need not be of heroic proportion,
nor the heroine anything but a charming and attractive maiden.
The pity of the situation, no doubt, arises from the fact that
the game of sentimental philandering is often played at the
expense of others who are not in it, but that is only an inevitable
incident of the game. The motif of the progress of a courtly
love-intrigue through hindrances to royal desire for a lowly
maiden and its denouement in the ultimate discovery of her
status as a princess was perhaps not as banal in Kalidasa's
1 Ed- F. Bollensen, Leipzig 1879; ed. 8. P. Pandit, with comm. of Katayavema
(c. 1400 A.D.), Bombay Sanak. Ser , 2nd ed.. 1889, and by K. P. Parab, NSP, Bombay 1915.
Tra. into Englisb by C. H. Tswney, Calcutta 1875 and London 1891 ; into German by Weber,
Berlin 1856 ; into French by V. Henry, Paris 1889. On Text-criticism see C. Cappeller, Observa*
tiones ad Kdlidasae Malavikagnimiiram (Diss ),Regimonti 1868; F. Haag, Zur Textkritik und
Erkllrung von Kalid&xas Malavikagnimitra, Frauenfeld 1872 ; Bollensen in ZDMG, XIII,
1859, p. 480 f; Weber in ibid., XIV, 1860, p. 261 f ; Jackson in JAOS, XX, p. 343 f (Titne-
analysis). For fuller bibliography see Sten Konow, op. c/t.» p. 63.
1 If tbe work is called nava, with a reference to far-famed predecessors, the same
word is used to designate bis Abhijflana-6aktin1a1a, which also modestly seeks the satisfaction
of the learned as a final test ; and his Vikramorva&ya is spoken of in the same way in the
Prologue as apurva, with reference to former poets (purva kavi). In a sense, all plays are
nava and apurva, and no valid inference 1s possible from such descriptions.
8 Wilson's unfounded doubt about the authorship of the play led to its comparative
neglect, but Weber and 8. P. Pandit effectively set the doubt* at rest, For a warm eulogy,
fee V. IJenry, l^es Literatures del9 Inde, p. 305 f, "
K1LIDISA 137
time 1 as we are wont to think; but the real question is how the
therne is handled. Neither Agnimitra nor Malavika may appear
impressive, but they are appropriate to the atmosphere. The
former is a care-free and courteous gentleman, on whom the
burden of kingly responsibility sits but lightly, who is no longer
young but no less ardent, who is an ideal Daksina Nayaka
possessing a groat capacity for falling in and out of love ; while
the latter is a faintly drawn ingenue with nothing but good looks
and willingness to be loved by the incorrigible king-lover.
The Vidusaka is a more lively character, who takes a greater-
part in the development of the plot in this play than in the
other dramas of Kalidasa. The interest of the theme is enhanced
by the complications of the passionate impetuousity and jealousy
of the young discarded queen Travail, which is finely shown off
against the pathetic dignity and magnanimity of the elderly chief
queen Pharinl. Perhaps the tone and tenor of the play did
not permit a more serious development of this aspect of the plot,
but it should not be regarded as a deficiency. The characterisa-
tion is sharp and clear, and the expression polished, elegant
and .even dainty. The wit and elaborate compliments, the
toying and trifling with the tender passion, the sentimental-
ities arid absence of deep feeling are in perfect keeping with
the outlook of the gay circle, which is not used to any profounder
view of life. 2 One need not wonder, therefore, that while war
is in progress in the kingdom, the royal household is astir with
the amorous escapades of the somewhat elderly, but youthfully
inclined, king. Gallantry is undoubtedly the keynote of the
play, and its joys and sorrows should not be reckoned at a higher
level. Judged by its own standard, there is nothing immature,
clumsy or turgid in the drama. If Kalidasa did not actually
1 The source of the story is not known, but it is clear that Kalidasa owes nothing to
the Puranic stories. As at. 2 shows, accounts of Agnimitra were probably current and available
to the poet.
* K. K. Pisbaroti in Journal of the Annamaki Univ., II, no. 2, p. 193 f., is inclined to
take the play as a veiled satire on some royal family of the time, if not on Agnimitra himself,
and would think that the weakness of the opening scene is deliberate.
J8-J843B
138 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
originate the type, he must have so stamped it with the impress
of bis genius that it was, as the dramas of Harsa and Raja^ekhara
show, adopted as one of the appealing modes of dramatic
expression and became banalised in course of time.
j, In the Vikramorvasiya, 1 on the other hand, there is a decided
weakness in general treatment. The romantic story of the love
of the mortal king Pururavas and the divine nymph Urva£I is
old, the earliest version occurring in the Rgveda x. 95 ; but the
passion and pathos, as well as the logically tragic ending, of the
ancient , legend 2 is changed, in five acts, into an unconvincing
story of semi-courtly life with a weak denouement of domestic
union and felicity, brought about by the intervention of a
magic stone and the grace of Indra. The fierce-souled spouse,
la belle dame sans merci of the Rgveda, is transformed into
a passionate but selfish woman, an elevated type of the
heavenly courtesan, and later on, into a happy and obe-
dient wife. The modifying hand of folk-tale and comedy of
courtly life is obvious ; and some strange incidents and situa-
tions, like the first scene located in the air, is introduced ;
but accepting Kalidasa's story as it is, there is no deficiency
in characterisation and expression. If the figures are strange
and romantic, they are still transcripts from universal nature.
Even when the type does not appeal, the character lives. The
1 Ed. R. Lenz, with Latin notes etc., Berlin 1838; ed. F. Bollensen, St. Petersberg
1840; ed. Monier Williams, Heitford 1849; ed. 3. P. Pandit and B. H. Arte, with extracts
fromcomm. of KStayavema and Ranganatha, Bom. Skt. Ser., 3rd ed. 1901 xlst ed. 1879);
ed. K. P. Parab and M. B. Talang, NSP, with com in. of Bafiganatha, Bombay
1914 (4th ed.) ; ed. Gbarudev 8astri9 with comrn. of Kfttayavema, Lahore 1929. Trs.
into English by B. B. Cowell, Hertford 1851 ; into German by L. Fritze, Leipzig 1880 ;
into French by P. B. Foucaux, Paris 1861 and 1879. Tbe recension according to Dravidian
manuscripts is edited by Pfccbel in Monattber. d. kgl preuss. Akad, m Berlin, 1876, p. 609 f.
For fuller bibliography see Sten Konow, op. cit.t p. 65-66.
1 Kalidasa's eource, again, is uncertain. The story is retold with the missing details
in the Satapatha Brdhmana, but the Pur&nic accounts entirely modify it not to its advan-
tage. The Ftoujmrftpa preserves some of its old rough features, but in the KathZ-sarit-
t&g&ra and in the Matsya-purana we find it in the much altered form of a folk-tale. The
latter version closely resembles the one which Kftlidftsa follows, but it is not clear if tbe
Matiya-pwfya version itself, like tbe Padtna-purcina version of tbe Sakuntala-legend, is
modelled on K&lidaut's treatment of the 1(07.
KALIDISA 139
brave and chivalrous Pururavas is sentimental, but as his
madness shows, he is not the mere trifler of a princely amorist
like Agnimitra ; while the jealous queen Au^Inari is not a repeti-
tion of Iravati or Dharim. Although in the fifth act, the
opportunity is missed of a tragic conflict of emotion between
the joy of Pururavas in finding his son and his sorrow at the
loss of Urva£i resulting from the very sight of the child, there is
yet a skilful delineation of Kalidasa's favourite motif of the
recognition of the unknown son and the psychological climax
of presenting the offspring as the crown of wedded love. There
are also features in the drama which are exceptional in the whole
range of Sanskrit literature, and make it rise above the decorum
of courtly environment. The fourth act on the madness of
Pururavas is unique in this sense. The scene is hardly drama-
tic and has no action, but it reaches an almost lyric height in
depicting the tumultuous ardour of undisciplined passion. It is
a fantasy in soliloquy, in which the demented royal lover, as he
wanders through the woods in search of his beloved, demands
tidings of his fugitive love from the peacock, the cuckoo, the
flamingo, the bee, the elephant, the boar and the antelope ; he
deems the cloud, with its rainbow, to be a demon who has borne
his beauteous bride away ; he searches the yielding soil softened by
showers,, which may perchance, if she had passed that way, have
retained the delicate impression of her gait, and may show some
vestige of the red tincture of her dyed feet. The whole scene is
melodramatically conceived ; and if the Prakrit verses are
genuine,1 they are apparently meant to be sung behind the
scenes. The stanzas are charged with exuberance of emotion
1 The authenticity of the Prakrit verses has been doubted, chiefly on the ground that the
Apabhramga of the type found in them is suspicious iu a drama of such early date, and that
they are not found in the South Indian recension of the text. The Northern recension
calls the drama a Tro^aka, apparently for the song-element in the verses, but according
to the South Indian recension, it conforms generally to the essentials of a Nataka. See U. N.
Upadhye, introd. to Para watma-p raft Wa (Bombay 1987), p. 56, note, who arguf a in favour
of the genuineness of the ApabhrarpSa verses.
HlStORl* OF SANSKBlt Lll'ERAfURfe
and pl$y of fancy, but we have nothing else which appeals in
the drama but the isolation of individual passion. The inevi-
tctble tragedy of such a love is obvious ; and it is a pity that the
play is coptinued after the natural tragic climax is reached, even
at the cost of lowering the heroine from her divine estate and
making Ipdra break his word !
That the AbhijMna-fakuntala l is, in every respect, the most
finished of Kalidasa's dramatic compositions, is indicated by
the almost universal feeling of genuine admiration which it
has always evoked. The old legend of Sakuntaia, incorporated
in the Adiparvan of the Mahabharata, or perhaps some version
of it,2 must have suggested the plot of this drama ; but the
difference between the rough and simple epic narrative and
Kalidasa's refined and delicate treatment of it at once reveals his
distinctive ^dramatic genius. The shrewd, straightforward and
taunting girl of the Epic is transformed into the shy, dignified
and pathetic heroine, while the selfish conduct of her practical
lover in the Epic, who refuses to recognise her out of policy, is
replaced by an irreprehensible forgetfulness which obscures his
* The earliest edition (Bengal Recension) is tbat by A. L. Cbfoy, Paris 1830. The
drama exists in four recensions : (i) DevanagarT, ed. 0. Bdhtlingk, Bonn 184-2, but with better
materials, ed. Monier Williams, 2nd ed,, Oxford 1876 list ed. 1853) ; with coium. of Raghava-
bbatta, ed. N. B. Qodbole and K. P. Parab, NSP, Bombay 1883, 1922. (it) Bengali, ed. R.
Pifcchel, Kiel 1877; 2nd ed. in Harvard Orient. Ser., revised by 0. Cappeller, Cambridge Mass.
1922. (w) K&6mIM, ed. K. Burkhard, Wien 1884. (it?) South Indian, no critical edition ; but
printed with comtn. of Abhirama, Sri Van! Vilasa Press, Srirangam 1917, etc. Attempts
to reconstruct the text, by C. Cappeller (Kurzere Textform), Leipzig 1909, and by
P. N. Patankar (called Purer Devanagarl Text), Poona 1902* But no critical edition,
Utilising all the recensions, has jet been undertaken. The earliest English trs. by William
Jones, London 1790 ; but trs. have been numerous in various languages. On Text-
criticism, see Pischel, De Kalidfaae Caliuntali recensionibus (Diss.), Breslau 1872 and
Die Rezensionen der Cakuntala, Breslau 1875; A. Weber, Die Recensionen der Sakuntala
*in Ind. Studient XIV, pp. 86-69, 161-311; Hariohand Sastri, op. ctt., p. 248 f. For
fuller bibliography, see Sten Konow, op. cit., pp. 68*70, and M. Schuyler in JAOS,
XXlIi p. 237 f.
9 $ha Padma-Pur&na version is perhaps a recast of Kalidasa's story, and there is no
reason to think (Win tern Hz, 0/L, III, p. 21&) tbat Kalidasa derived his material from the
Purai^a, or from some earlier version of it. Haradatta Bar ma, K&lidfaa dnd the
a, Calcutta 1925, follows Winternitz.
rULlDASA lil
love. A dramatic motive is thereby supplied, and tbe prosaic
incidents and characters of the original legend are plastically
remodelled into frames and shapes of beauty. Here we see to
its best effect Kalidasa's method of unfolding a character, as $
flower unfolds its petals in rain and sunshine ; there is no
melodrama, no lame denouement, to mar the smooth, measured
and dignified progress of tbe play ; there is temperance in the
depth of passion, and perspicuity and inevitableness in action
and expression ; but, above all this, the drama surpasses by its
essential poetic quality of style and treatment.
Some criticism, however, has been levelled against the
artificial device of the curse and the ring,1 which brings in an
clement of chance and incalculable happening in the development
of the plot. It should be recognised, however, that the psycho-
logical evolution of action is more or less, a creation of the
modern drama. The idea of destiny or divinity shaping our
ends, unknown to ourselves, is not a peculiarly Indian trait, but
is found in ancient drama in general ; and the trend has been
from ancient objectivity to modern subjectivity.2 Apart from
judging a method by a standard to which it does not profess
to conform, it cannot also be argued that there is an inherent
inferiority in an external device as compared with the
1 Criticised severely, for instance, by H. Oldenberg in Die Lit. d. alien Indiert, p. 261.
The curse of Candabhargava and tbe magic ring in tbe Avi-inaraka, wbich have a different
purpose, have only a superficial similarity, and could not have been Kalidasa's source of tbe
idea. On tbe curse of a sage as a motif in story and drama, see L, H. Gray in WZKM,
XVIII, 1904, pp. 53-54. The ring-motif is absent in the Mahabharata, but P. E. Pavolini
(G&tF, XIX, 1906, p. 376; XX, p. 297 f.) finds a parallel in Jataka no. 7. It is perhaps
an old Indian story-motif.
8 C. E. Vaughan, Types of Tragic Drama, London 1908, p. 8 f. On the idea of Destiny
iu ancient and modern diama, see W. Macneille Dixoo, Tragedy , London 1924, pp. 35-46.
The device of tbe Ghost as the spirit of revenge in Euripides* Hecuba and Seneca's Thyestes
is also external, although it was refined in the Elizabethan drama, especially in Shakespeare.
The supernatural machinery in both Macbeth and Hamlet may be conceived as hallucination
projected by the active minds in question, but it stilt has an undoubted influence on the
development of tbe plot of the respective plays, which can be regarded as dramas of a mm
at oJds with fate.
142 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERAttJfcfi
complication created by the inner impetus, to which we
are in the present day more accustomed, perhaps too
superstitiously. It is not really a question of comparative
excellence, but of the artistic use which is made of a particular
device. It is true that in Kalidasa's Abhijftana-sakuntala, the
dramatic motive comes from without, but it is effectively utilised,
and the drama which is enacted within and leads to a crisis is
not thereby overlooked. The lovers arc betrayed also by what
is within, by the very rashness of youthful love which reaps as
it sows ; and the^ entire responsibility in this drama is not
laid on the external agency. Granting the belief of the time,
there is nothing unreal or unnatural ; it is fortuitous but not
uninotived. We have here not merely a tragedy of blameless
hero and heroine; for a folly, or a mere girlish fault, or even
one's very virtues may bring misfortune. The unriddled ways
of "life need not always be as logical or comprehensible as one
may desire; but there is nothing illogical or incomprehensible
if only Svadhikara-pramada, here as elsewhere, leads to distress,
and the nexus between act and fate is not wholly disregarded.
If the conflict, again, between the heart's desire and the world's
impediment can be a sufficient dramatic motive, it is not of very
great poetic consequence if the impediment assumes the form of
a tragic curse, unknown to the persons affected, and plays the
role of invisible but benevolent destiny in shaping the course of
action. It is true that we cannot excuse ourselves by arraigning
Fate, Chance or Destiny; the tragic interest must assuredly be
built on the foundation of human responsibility ; but at the
same time a human plot need always be robbed of its mystery,
and simplified to a mere circumstantial unfolding of cause and
effect, all in nostra potestate. Fate or Ourselves, in the
abstract, is a difficult question; but, as in life so in the drama,
we need not reject the one for the other as the moulder of human
action.
Much less convincing, and perhaps more misconceived,
is the criticism that Kalidasa evinces no interest in the great
KXLJDISA 143
problems of human life. As, on the one hand, it would be a
misdirected effort to find nothing but art for art's sake in
Kalidasa's work, so, on the other, it would be a singularly
unimaginative attempt to seek a problem in a work of art and
turn the poet into a philosopher. It is, however, difficult to
reconcile the view mentioned above with the well-known eulogy
of no less an artist than Goethe, who speaks of finding in
Kalidasa's masterpiece " the young year's blossom and the fruit
of its decline," and " the earth and heaven combined in one
name." In spite of its obvious poetical exaggeration, this
metaphorical but eloquent praise is not empty ; it sums up with
unerring insight the deeper issues of the drama, which is bound
to be lost sight of by one who looks to it merely for a message
or philosophy of life.
The Abhijfiana-£ahuntala, unlike most Sanskrit plays, is
not based on the mere banality of a court-intrigue, but has a
much more serious interest in depicting the baptism of youthful
love by silent suffering. Contrasted with Kalidasa's own
Mdkvikagnimitra and Vikramorva&ya, the sorrow of the hero and
heroine in this drama is far more human, far more genuine ; and
love is no longer a light-hearted passion in an elegant surround-
ing, nor an explosive emotion ending in madness, but a 'deep and
steadfast enthusiasm, or rather a progressive emotional
experience, which results in an abiding spiritual feeling. The
drama opens with a description of the vernal season, made for
enjoyment (upabhoga-ltsama) ; and even in the hermitage where
thoughts of love are out of place, the season extends its witchery
and makes the minds of the young hero and heroine turn lightly
to such forbidden thoughts. At the outset we find Sakuntala,
an adopted child of nature, in the daily occupation of tending
the friendly trees and creepers and watching them grow and
bloom, herself a youthful blossom, her mind delicately attuned
to the sights and sounds in the midst of which she had grown up
since she had been deserted by her amanusl mother. On this
scene appears the more sophisticated royal hero, full of the pride
144 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
of youth and power, but with a noble presence which inspires
love and confidence, possessed of scrupulous regard for rectitude
but withal susceptible to rash youthful impulses, considerate of
others and alive to the Dignity and responsibility of his high
station, but accustomed to every fulfilment of his wishes and
extremely self-confident in the promptings of his own heart.
He is egoistic enough to believe that everything he wishes
must be right because he wishes it, and everything does
happen as he wishes it. In his impetuous desire to gain what
he wants, he does not even think it necessary to wait for the
return of Kanva. It was easy for him to carry the young girl
off her feet ; for, though brought up in the peaceful seclusion
and stern discipline of a hermitage, she was yet possessed of a
natural inward longing for the love and happiness which were due
to her youth and beauty. Though fostered by a sage and herself
the daughter of an ascetic, she was yet the daughter of a nymph
whose intoxicating beauty had once achieved a conquest over
the austere and terrible Visvamitra. This beauty and tins
power she had inherited from her mother, as well as an inborn
keenness and desire for love; is she not going to make her
own conquest over this great king? For such youthful lovers,
love can never think of the morrow ; it can only think of the
moment. All was easy at first ; the secret union to which they
committed themselves obtains the ratification of the foster-father.
But sooii she realises the pity of taking love as an end in itself,
of making the moment stand for eternity. The suffering comes
as swiftly and unexpectedly as the happiness was headlong and
heedless.
To these thoughtless lovers the curse of Durvasas comes to
play the part of a stern but beneficient providence. With high
hopes and unaware o( the impending catastrophe, she leaves for
the house of her king-lover, tenderly taking farewell from her
sylvan friends, who seem to be filled with an unconscious anxiety
for her ; but very soon she finds herself standing utterly
humiliated in the eyes of the world. Her grief, remorse and
K5LIDASA 145
self-pity are aggravated by the accusation of unseemly haste and
secrecy from Gautami, as well as by the sterner rebuke of
Sarrigarava : " Thus does one's heedlessness lead to disaster ! M
But the unkindest cut comes from her lover himself, who
insultingly refers to instincts of feminine shrewdness, and
compares her, without knowing, to the turbid swelling flood
which drags others also in its fall. Irony in drama or in life
can go no further. But the daughter of a nymph as she was,
she had also the spirit of her fierce and austere father, and
ultimately emerges triumphant from the ordeal of sorrow. She
soon realises that she has lost all in her gambling for happiness,
and a wordy warfare is useless. She could not keep her lover
by her youth and beauty alone. She bows to the inevitable ; and
chastened and transformed by patient suffering, she wins back
in the end her husband and her happiness. But the king is as
yet oblivious of what is in store for him. Still arrogant, ironical
and self-confident, he wonders who the veiled lady might be ; her
beauty draws him as irresistibly as it once did, and yet his
sense of rectitude forbids any improper thought. But his
punishment comes in due course ; for he was the greater culprit,
who had dragged the unsophisticated girl from her sylvan
surroundings and left her unwittingly in the mire. When the
ring of recognition is recovered, he realises the gravity of his
act. Her resigned and reproachful form now haunts him and
gives him no peace in the midst of his royal duties ; and his
utter helplessness in rendering any reparation makes his grief
more intense arid poignant. The scene now changes from earth
to heaven, from the hermitage of Kanva and the court of the
king to the penance-grove of Marica ; and the love that was of
the earth changes to love that is spiritual and divine. The
strangely estranged pair is again brought together equally
strangely, but not until they have passed through the trial of
sorrow and become ready for a perfect reunion of hearts. There
is no explanation, no apology, no recrimination, nor any demand
for reparation. Sakuntala has now learnt in silence the lessons
1P-1343B
146 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
of suffering ; and with his former self-complacency and impetuous
desires left behind, the king comes, chastened and subdued, a
sadder and wiser man. The young year's blossom now ripens
into the mellow fruit of autumnal maturity.
Judged absolutely, without reference to an historical
standard, Kalidasa's plays impress us by their admirable
combination of dramatic and poetic qualities ; but it is in pure
poetry that he surpasses even in his dramatic works. It should
be admitted that he has the powers of a great dramatist ; he can
merge his individuality in the character he represents ; he can
paint distinct individuals, and not personified abstractions, with
consistent reality and profound insight into human nature ; all
his romantic situations may not be justified, but he is always at
the height of a situation ; within certain limits, he has construct-
ive ability of a high order, and the action is perspicuous,
naturally developed and adequately motived ; he makes a skilful
use of natural phenomenon in sympathy with the prevaling tone
of a scene ; he gives by his easy and unaffected manner the
impression of grace, which comes from strength revealed without
unnecessary display or expenditure of energy ; he never tears a
passion to tatters nor does h& overstep the modesty of nature in
producing a pathetic effect ; he does not neglect the incident in
favour of dialogue or dainty stanzas ; all this and more may be
freely acknowledged. But the real appeal of his dramas lies in the
appeal of their poetry more than in their purely dramatic quality.
His gentle pathos and humour, his romantic imagination and his
fine poetic feeling are more marked characteristics of his dramas
than mere ingenuity of plot, liveliness of incident and minute
portraiture of men and manners. They save him from the
prosaic crudeness of the realist, as well as from an oppressive and
unnatural display of technical skill. The elegant compliment
of the author of the Prasanna-raghava that Kalidasa is the ' grace
of poetry ' emphasises the point ; but poetry at the same time
is not too seductive for him. He is a master of sentiment,
but not a sentimentalist who sacrifices the realities of life ape}
KALID1SA 147
character ; he is romantic, but his romance is not divorced from
common nature and common sense. He writes real dramas
and not a series of elegant poetical passages ; the poetic fancy
and love of style do not strangle the truth and vividness of his
presentation. He is also not in any sense the exponent of the
opera^ or the lyrical drama, or the dramatic poem. He is rather
the creator of the poetical drama in Sanskrit. But the difficult
standard which he set could not be developed except in an
extreme form by his less gifted successors.
In making a general estimate of Kalidasa' s achievement
as a poet, one feels the difficulty of avoiding superlatives ; but
the superlatives in this case are amply justified. Kalidasa's
reputation has always been great; and this is perhaps the only
case where both Eastern and Western critics, applying not
exactly analogous standards, are in general agreement. That
he is the greatest of Sanskrit poets is a commonplace of literary
criticism, but if Sanskrit literature can claim to rank as one
of the great literatures of the world, Kalidasa's high place in the
galaxy of world-poets must be acknowledged. It is not necessary
to prove it by quoting the eulogium of Goethe and Ananda-
vardhana ; but the agreement shows that Kalidasa has the gift
of a great poet, and like all great poetic gifts, it is of universal
appeal.
This high praise does not mean that Kalidasa's poetic art
and style have never been questioned or are beyond criticism.
Leaving aside Western critics whose appreciation of an alien
art and expression must necessarily be limited, we find the
Sanskrit rhetoricians, in spite of their great admiration, are not
sparing in their criticism ; and, like Ben Jonson who wanted to
blot out a thousand lines in Shakespeare, they would give us a
fairly long list of " faults " which mar the excellence of Kali-
dasa's otherwise perfect work. We are not concerned here with
the details of the alleged defects, but they happily demonstrate
that Kalidasa, like Shakespeare, is not faultily faultless. That
his rhetoric is of the best kind is shown by the hundreds of
148 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
passages approved by the rhetoricians themselves ; but that they
sometimes disapprove his not conforming rigidly to their laws
is also significant. If his obedience is successful, his dis-
obedience is often no less successful in giving him freedom of
idea and expression and saving him from much that is wooden
and merely conventional.
Even in the imposing gallery of Sanskrit poets who arc
always remarkable for technical skill, Kalidasa has an astonishing
display of the poetic art ; but he never lends himself to an over-
development of the technical to the detriment of the artistic.
The bgend which makes Kalidasa an inspired idiot and implies
a minimum of artistic consciousness and design is perhaps as
misleading as the counter-error of too great insistence upon the
consciousness and elaboration of his art. There is little doubt
that he shared the learning of his time, but he weirs his learn-
ing lightly like a flower; while the deceptive clarity and simpli-
city of his work conceal the amount of cultivation and polish
which goes into its making. It is not spontaneous creation ;
but while lesser poets lack the art to conceal art, he has the gift
of passion, imagination, music and colouring to give an effective
appearance of spontaneity and inevitability. He belongs to a
tradition which insists upon literature being a learned pursuit,
/but he is one of the great and limpid writers who can be
approached with the minimum of critical apparatus and commen-
tatorial lucubrations.
This marvellous result is made possible because Kalidasa's
works reveal a rare balance of mind, which harmonises the artis-
tic sense with the poetic, and results in the practice of singular
moderation. No other Sanskrit poet can approach him in the
command of that mysterious instrument, the measured word.
Kalidasa has a rich and sustained elevation of diction, but it is
never overwrought and very rarely rhetorical in the bad sense.
Conceits and play upon words are to be found in him, as in
Shakespeare, but there are no irritating and interminable puns ;
4 no search after strained exnressions. harsh inversions or involved
KALIDASA
constructions ; no love for jewels five words long ; no torturing
of words or making them too laboured for the ideas. Even
Kalidasa's love of similitude,1 for which he has been so highly
praised, never makes him employ it as a mere verbal trick, but
it is made a natural concomitant of the emotional content for
suggesting more than what is expressed. On the other hand,
his ideas, emotions and fancies never run riot or ride rough-shod
over the limits of words, within which they are compressed
with tasteful economy and pointedness of phrasing. The result
is a fine adjustment of sound and sense, a judicious harmony
of word and idea, to a point not often reached by other Sanskrit
poets. This is seen not only in the extraordinary vividness and
precision of his presentment of images and ideas, but also in
the modulation of letter, syllable, word, line and stanza to
produce a running accompaniment at once to the images and
ideas. The felicity of expression, its clarity and ease, which have
been recognised in Kalidasa as the best instance of the Prasada
Guna, come from this careful choice of a rich store of words,
both simple and compound, which are not only delicately attuned
but also made alive with the haunting suggestion of poetry.
If it is simplicity, it is simplicity made more elegant than
ornateness itself by sheer genius for proportion and vividity.
There are hundreds of words, phrases and lines in Kalidasa,
echoing passages and veritable gems of expression, giving us
an infinity of fresh and felt observations, which fasten themselves
on the memory ; such is the distinctness of his vision and the
elaborate, but not laboured, accuracy of his touch. If the
gift of phrasing is one of the tests of a great writer,
Kalidasa possesses this happy gift ; but it is also combined
with the still more rare gifts, seen in perfection in great poets,
of putting multumin parvo and of opening up unending vistas of
thought by the magic power of a single line or phrase.
1 A study of Kalidasa's Upama has been made by P. K. Gode in Proc. of the First
Orient. Con/,, Poona 1922, pp. 205-26. On Kalidasa'a relation to Alaipkara literature in
general, see Hillebrandt, Kaliddsa, p. 107 f.
150 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Kalidasa is indeed careful of form, but he is not careless of
matter. Like later Sanskrit poets lie does not make his narrative
a mere peg on which he can luxuriously hang* his learning and
skill. Whatever may be said about his choice of themes, he is
seldom unequal to them. The wide exploration of subjects,
legendary, mythical, emotional and even fantastic, and his
grasp over their realities, are seen in the way in which he handles,
his huge and diverse material in the Raghu-vam$a, creates a
a human story out of a divine myth in his Kumara-sambhava
and depicts the passionate Jove of hapless lovers in an environ-
ment of poetical fancy in his Megha-duta and his dramas. He
may not always be at the height of his power through the entire
length of a work, but he is always at the height of a particular
situation. His sources are not exactly known, but it is clear
that his subjects serve him for the stuff out of which he creates;
and Kalidasa perhaps borrows nothing from his supposed
originals that makes him Kalidasa. He is not so much the
teller of a story as the maker of it, and his unerring taste and
restraint accomplish this making by not allowing either the form
or the content to overwhelm or exceed each other.
The same sense of balance is also shown by the skilful
adjustment of a mobile and sensitive prosody to the diction and
theme of the poems. The total number of different metres which
Kalidasa employs is only about twenty. With the exception of
Mandakranta of his short poem, they are either Sloka,1 or a few
moric metres like Vaitaliya, Aupacchandasika or Puspitagra, but
the general bulk consists normally of the relatively short lyrical
measures of the Tristubh-JagatI family or metres akin to it. In
the drama, of course, there is greater metrical variety suited to
the different situations and emotions. In the bigger poems the
i
It is remarkable thai the £loka is used not only for the condensation of the Kauiayana
story in Raghu0 xii, but al*o for the Stotra of deities both in Raghu9 x and Kumara* ii, aa
well as for the narration of Raghu *s Dig vi jay a. For repetition of the same metre for similar
theme, c/. Vijogini in Aja-vilapa and Bati-vilapa; Upajati in describing mairiage in Raghu*
vii and Kumdra* vii; KathoddhatS in depicting amorous pastimes in Raghu0 xix and
Kumar ^ viii, etc.
KILIDISA 151
short lyrical measures are perhaps meant for facility of continued
narration ; the simplicity and swing of the stanzas make his
narrative flow in a clear arid attractive stream ; but even in the
leisurely descriptive and reflectively serious passages, they never
cramp the thought, feeling or imagination ||: the poet. The
stately and long-drawn-out music of the Mandakranta, on the
other hand, very well suits the picturesque and melancholy
recollections of love in his Megha-duta. It is, however, clear thai
Kalidasa is equally at home in. both short and long measures ;
and though a part of canto ix of the Raghu-varnsa is meant
deliberately to display the poet's skill in varied metres, the
variation is not unpleasing. But, normally, it is not a question
of mere metrical skill, but of the developed and delicate sense of
rhythmic forms and the fine subtlety of musical accompaniment
to the power of vivid and elegant presentation.
With the same sense of equipoise Kalidasa's imagination
holds in perfect fusion the two elements of natural beauty and
human feeling. His nature-pictures grow out of the situations,
and his situations merge into the nature-pictures. This is
palpable not only in his Megha-duta, but practically throughout
his other two poems and his dramas. The pathos of the destruc-
tion of Kama is staged in the life and loveliness of spring;
Rama's tender recollection of past joys and sorrows is intimately
associated with the hills, rivers and trees of Dandaka ; the pretty
amourette of Agnimitra, the madness of Pururavas, or the wood-
land wooing of Dusyanta is set in the midst of the sights and
sounds of nature. A countless number of Kalidasa's beautiful
similes and metaphors is drawn from his loving observation
of natural phenomena. The depth and range of his experience
and insight into human life is indeed great, but the human
emotion is seldom isolated from the beauty of nature surrounding
it. Kalidasa's warm humanism and fine poetic sensibility
romanticise the natural as well as the mythological \\orld, and
they supply to his poetry the grace and picturesqueness of bacl$-
ground ancl scenic variety.
152 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
It will be seen that the sense of universality in Kalidasa's
work springs not merely from its humanity and range of
interests, but also from the fact that it reveals him as a great
master of poetic thought who is at the same time a master of
poetic style. Diction, imagery, verbal music, suggestion, — all
the elements of poetry are present in intense degree and in many
forms and combinations novel and charming; but they all exhibit
a marvellous fusion of the artistic consciousness with poetic
imagination and feeling. Kalidasa's poetic power, which scorns
anything below the highest, is indeed not narrow in its possibi-
lities of application, but its amplitude and exuberance are always
held in restraint by his sense of art, which, however, does not
act as an incubus, but as a chastener. His work, therefore, is
never hampered or hurried; there is no perpetual series of ups
and downs in it, no great interval between his best and his
worst ; it maintains a level of excellence and stamp of distinction
throughout. All ruggedness and angularity are delicately
smoothed away; and the even roundness of his full-orbed poetry
appeals by a haunting suggestion of serene beauty, resulting from
a subtle merging of thought and feeling in sound and visual effect.
But from this spring both the strength and weakness of
Kalidasa's poetic achievement. If tranquil contemplation of
recollected emotions, in both eastern and western theory,
denotes the aesthetic attitude and forms the essence of true
poetry, Kalidasa's work is certainly marked by it in an eminent
degree. His tranquility, considered as an attitude' towards life,
is not easy-going indifference or placid acquiescence in the order
of things; there is enough of earnestness and sense of sorrow
to indicate that it must have been hard-won, although we are
denied the sight of the strife and struggle which led to its attain-
ment, or of the scars or wrinkles which might have been left
behind. In his poetry, it bore fruit in the unruffled dignity and
serenity of artistic accomplishment. At the same time, it en-
couraged a tendency towards reserve more than towards abandon.
Kalidasa's poetry seldom surprises us by its fine excess; it is
KALIDASA 158
always smooth, measured and even. The polished and the ornate
is as much natural to Kalidasa as, for instance, the rugged and
the grotesque to Bhavabhuti. While Kalidasa broiders the
exquisite tissue of poetry, Bhavabhuti would have it rough and
homespun. This is perhaps not so much a studied effect as a
temperamental attitude in both cases. The integrity and sincerity
of primal sensations and their fervid expression, which Bhava-
bhuti often attains, are rare in Kalidasa's highly refined and
cultured utterances. It is not that Kalidasa is averse to what is
intense and poignant, as well as grand and awe-inspiring, in life and
nature, but the emotions are chastened and subdued in the severity,
strength and dignity of finished poetic presentation. There is
nothing crude, rugose or tempestuous in Kalidasa, not a jarring
note of violence or discord, but everything is dissolved in the
harmony and beauty of reposeful realisation. The limitation of
this attitude is as obvious as its poetic possibility. While it
gives the perfect artistic aloofness conducive to real poetry, it
deprives the poet of robust and keen perceptions, of the concrete
and even gross realism of undomesticated passion, of the fresh-
ness of the drossy, but unalloyed, ore direct from the mine.
Kalidasa would never regard his emotions as their own excuse
for being, but would present them in the embalmed glamour
of poetic realisation, or in the brocaded garb of quintessenced
rhetoric. Kalidasa has perhaps as much optimism for civilisa-
tion as Bhavabhuti has for savagery ; but he does not often
attain the depths and heights which Bhavnbhuti does by bis
untamed roughness. It is for this reason that some of Kali-
dasa's pictures, both of life and nature, finely poetic as they are,
are still too refined and remote. The Himalayas do not appear
to Kalidasa in their natural grandeur and sublimity, nor the
Dan^aka forest in its wild beauty and ruggedness ; all these
pictures are to be properly finished and framed, but" thereby they
lose much of their trenchant setting and appeal.
But all this is not mere suavity or finicality. Kalidasa's
poetry does not swim in langour, cloyed with its own sweetness ;
20-1848B
154 HISTORY OF SANSKhlT LITERATURE
the chastity and restraint of his imagination, the precision and
energy of his phrasing, and the austerity of his artistic vigilance
save him from mere sensuous ideality. Nor is it classical correct-
ness in the narrow sense that might be learned in the schools
of literature. The ornate in Kalidasa, therefore, means very
rarely mere prettiness or aesthetic make-believe ; it is the
achievement of the refined effect of a thought or feeling chiselled
in its proper form of beauty and becoming thereby a poetic
thought or feeling. It thus involves the process through which
the poet lifts his tyrannical passion or idea to the blissful contem-
plation of an aesthetic sentiment. Kalidasa can keep himself
above his subject in the sense of command, as Bhavabhuti too
often merges himself in it in the sense of surrender ; and the
difference is best seen in their respective treatment of pathos,
in which Kalidasa' s poetic sense of restraint and balance certain-
ly achieve a more profound effect. This is nowhere more clear
than in the picture of Kama's suffering on the occasion of Sita's
exile, drawn respectively by the two poets. Bhavabhuti 's tendency
is to elaborate pathetic scenes almost to the verge of crudity,
omitting no circumstances, no object animate or inanimate which
he thinks can add to their effectiveness ; and, like most Sanskrit
poets, he is unable to stop even when enough has been said.
But Kalidasa, like Shakespeare, suggests more than he expresses.
Not one of those who gather round the body of Cordelia makes a
phrase ; the emotion is tense, but there is no declamation to work
it up. The terrible blow given by the reported calumny regarding
his beloved makes Rama's heart, tossed in a terrible conflict
between love and duty, break in pieces, like the heated iron
beaten with a hammer ; but he does not declaim, nor faint, nor
shed a flood of tears. It is this silent suffering which makes
Kalidasa's Rama a truly tragic figure. Not until Laksmana
returns and delivers the spirited but sad messnge of his banished
wife that the king in him breaks down and yields to the man ;
but even here Kalidasa has only one short stanza (xiv. 84) which
sums up with infinite suggestion the entire pity of the situation,
CHAPTER
THE SUCCESSORS OF KILIDASA IN POETRY
The difficulty of fixing an exact chronology, as well as the
paucity and uncertainty of material, does not permit an orderly
historical treatment of the poets and dramatists who, in all
probability, flourished between Kalidasa, on the one hand, and
Magha and Bhavabhuti, on the other. It must have been a
period of great vitality and versatility ; for there is not a single
department of literature which is left untouched or left in a rudi-
mentary condition. But a great deal of its literary productions is
probably lost, and the few that remain do not adequately repre-
sent its many-sided activity. We know nothing, for instance,
of the extensive Prakrit literature, which presupposes Hala's
poetical compilation, and which sums up its folk-tale in the lost
collection of Gunadhya's Brhatkatha. No early collection also of
the popular tale in Sanskrit has survived ; and of the possible
descendants of the beast-fable, typified by the Pancatantra, we
know nothing. Concurrently with the tradition of Prakrit love-
poetry in the stanza-form, illustrated by the Sattasaf of Hala,
must have started the same tradition in Sanskrit, which gives
us the early Sataka of Amaru and which is followed up by those
of Bhartfhari and others ; but the exact relationship between the
two traditions is unknown. The origin of the religious and
gcomic stanzas, such as we find crystallised in -the Stotra-
Satakas of Mayura and Bana and the reflective Satakas of Bhartr-
hari, is equally obscure. Nor do we know much about the
beginnings of the peculiar type of the Sanskrit prose romance ;
and we possess no earlier specimens of them than the fairly
mature works of Dandin, Bana and Subandhu, who belong to
156 &IStORY OF SANSKRIT
this period. The dramatic works of Bbasa and Kalidasa must-
have inspired many a dramatist, but with the exception of
Sudraka, Visakhadatta, Har§a and the writers of four early
Monologue Plays (Bhanas), ascribed respectively to Yararuci,
Sudraka, Xsvaradatta and Syamilaka, all other names have
perished ; while Bhatta Narayana probably, and Bbavabhuti
certainly, corne at the end of this period. The number of early
poetical works in Sanskrit, the so-called Mahakavyas, is still
fewer. If the poetical predecessors of Kalidasa have all dis-
appeared, leaving his finished achievement in poetry to stand by
itself, this is still more the case with his successors. Bharavi,
Bhatti, Kumaradasa and Magha, with just a few minor poets,
practically complete the list of the composers of the Mahakavya of
this period. With the example of a consummate master of poetry
to guide them, the general level of merit should have been fairly
high and wide-spread ; but, since much is apparently lost, the
solitary altitudes become prominent and numerous in our
survey.
1. THE EROTIC SATAKAS OF AMARU AND BHARTRHARI
Although love-poetry blooms in its fullness in the Sanskrit
literature, more than in the Vedic and Epic, its earliest speci-
mens are lost. It should not be supposed that the passionate
element in human nature never found expression. The episode
of the love of Nanda and Sundari painted by A^vaghosa, the
erotic theme of the poem of Ghatakarpara, as well as the very
existence of the Megha-duta, show that erotic poetry could not
have been neglected. Love may not yet have come to its own in
the Kunstpoesie, the polished and cultured Kavya ; but the
example of Eala's Sattasal, whose stanzas are predominantly
erotic, makes it possible that in folk-literature, the tradition of
which is at least partially preserved in Prakrit, it finds an
absorbing theme. The Prakrit poetry here is doubtless as con-
THK EfeOTIC SATAKAS OF AMAlUJ i57
ventional aB Sanskrit, and is not folk-literature in its true sense ;
but it is clear that, while these early Prakrit stanzas, popular
among the masses, have love for their principal subject, the early
Sanskrit poems, so far as they have survived, do not often accept
it as their exclusive theme. There is indeed no evidence to show
that the Prakrit love-lyric is the prototype of the Sanskrit, but
the presumption is strong that the erotic sentiment, which had
diffused itself in the popular literature, survived in Prakrit poetry,
and gradually invaded the courtly Sanskrit Kavya, which provid-
ed a naturally fertile soil for it, and of which it ultimately became
the almost universal theme.
It is remarkable, however, that, with the exception of a few
works like the Megha-duta, the Ghatakarpara monody and the
Glta-govinda, which, again, are not unalloyed love-poems, the
Sanskrit erotic poetry usually takes the form, not of a systematic
well-knit poem, but of a single poetical stanza standing by itself,
in which the poet delights to depict a single phase of the emotion
or a single situation within the limits of a finely finished form.
Such is the case mostly with the seven hundred Prakrit stanzas,
which pass under the name of Hala Satavahana. If in Prakrit the
highest distinction belongs to Hala's Sattasal for being a collection
which gives varied and charming expression to the emotion of
love, the distinction belongs in Sanskrit without question J to the
Sataka of Amaru, about whose date and personality, however, as
little is known as about those of Hala. It is a much smaller
work, but it is no less distinctive and delightful.
A Sataka, meaning a century of detached stanzas, is usually
regarded as the work of a single poet, although it is probable
that Hala's seven centuries, in the main, form an antho-
logy. The form, however, allows easy interpolation ; and
most of the early Satakas contain much more than a hundred
1 Although the commentator Ravicandra finds a philosophical meaning in Amaru's
stanzas 1 And Vemabhupala, another commentator, would take the work to be merely a
rhetorical text-book of the satne type as liudra Bha(ta's $rhgara*tilaka, meant to illustrate
the various classas of the Nayika and the diversity of their amorous conditions 1
158 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LlTERAftkR
stanzas, it is not always possible, however, for several reasons,1
to separate the additions with certainty, and arrive at a definitive
text. The Amaru-fat aka* for instance, is known to exist in at
least four recensions,8 in which the text fluctuates between totals
of 96 and 115 stanzas,4 the number of stanzas common to all
the recensions, but given in varying sequence, being only 51.
The uncertainty of the text not only makes an estimate of the
work difficult, but also diminishes the value of any chronological
conclusion which may be drawn fr^m the citation of a particular
stanza in later works. Vamana's quotation,6 for instance, in
the beginning of the 9th century, of three stanzas without
naming the work or the author, establishes nothing, although
these stanzas occur in the present text of Amaru's tfataka. The
earliest mention of Auiciru as a poet of eminence is found in the
middle of the 9lb century in Anandavardhana's work,1' but it is of
little assistance, as Amaru is perhaps a much earlier writer.
1 The attribution in the anthologies, which often quote from Amaru, is notoriously
unreliable ; and there is a great deal of divergence regarding the number and sequence of
stanzas in the texts of the commentators and in the manuscripts of the work
* cd. B. Simon, in four recensions (Roman characters), Kiel 1893 (Of. ZDMG, XLIX,
1895, p. 577f) ; ed. Calcutta 1808 (see J. Gildemeister, Bibliothecae Sanskritae, Bonn 1847, p. ,73,
no. 162), with the comrn. of Havicandra (ahas Juanananda Kaladhara); ed. Durgaprasad, with
comra. of Arjunavarmadeva, with addl. stanzas from commentators and anthologies, N8P, 3rd
ed.f Bombay 1916 (1st ed,, 1889).
8 Viz., South Indian (com ID. Vemabbupala and Kamaoandanatha), Bengal (comtn.
Havicandra), Wesb Indian (comra. Arjunavarmadeva and Kokasambhava), and Miscellaneous
(comm. Ramarudra, Budramadeva, etc.). Simon bases his text chiefly on the South Indian
recension, but it hardly supersedes the text of Arjunavarmadeva of Dhara (circa 1215 A.D.),
who is the oldest known commentator. No certainty, of course, is possible without further
critical examination of materials.
4 Arjunavarman's printed text contains 102 stanzas; in the N3P. (Bombay) ed., the
appendices add 61 verses from other commentators and anthologies. Aufrecht'a suggestion
(ZDMG, XXVII, p. 7f), on the analogy of one-metre Satakas of Bana and Mayura, that only
stanzas in the Sardulavikricjita metre are original, would give us about 54 to 61 in recensions
Mil, and only 83 in recension iv. For the anthology stanzas, some of which are fine pieces, but
ascribed sometimes to other authors, see Thomas, Kvst p. 22 f ; some of these are not traceable
in the printed text ; they are in varied metres.
$ ed, Simon, DOS. 16, 30, 89« Vamana, Kavydlatpkara, iii. 2. 4 ; iv. 3. 12 ; v. 2. 8.
6 Dhvany&loka ad iii. 7.
THE EROTIC SATAKAS OF AMARU 159
The suggestion that he is later than Bhartrbari proceeds chiefly
on the debatable ground of style and technique; but after the
poetic art of Kalidasa, elaboration and finish of expression may
be expected in any writer, and need not prove anything. Even
if Amaru is later than Bhartrhari, the works of both exhibit
certain characteristics which would preclude a date later than
this period, and probably they could not have been very far apart
from each other in time.
Amaru is less wide in range than Hala, but he strikes
perhaps a deeper and subtler note. Araaru's poems lack a great
deal of the homeliness and rough good sense of Hala's erotic
stanzas; but they do not present, as more or less Hala's verses-
do, the picture of simple love set among simple scenes. Amaru
describes, with great delicacy of feeling and gracefulness of
imagery, the infinite moods and fancies of love, its changes and
chances, its strange vagaries and wanton wiles, its unexpected
thoughts and unknown impulses, creating varied and subtle
situations. His language, with all the resources of Sanskrit,
is carefully studied, but not extravagantly ornate ; and his gift of
lyric phrasing gives it the happy touch of ease and naturalness.
Amaru does not confine himself to the narrow limits of Hala's
slow-moving moric stanza, but appears to allow himself greater
metrical variety and more freedom of space. His employment of
long sonorous metres, as well as short lyric measures,1 not only
relieves the monotony of metrical effect, but adds richness,
weight and music to his little camoes of thought and feeling.
In spite of inequalities, almost every stanza in this collection
possesses a charm of its own; 2 and the necessity of compressing
1 The metres employed in their order of frequency are : SarJulaviktidita, HarinI,
3 kliarinl, Mand&kranta, Sragdhara, Vaaantatilaka and MalinT; while Drutavilambita, Vaktra
and Vaiplasthavila occur sporadically in some recensions only. See Simon's metrical analysis,
p. 46.
1 For some specimens, with translation, see 8. K. De, Treatment of Lore in Sanskrit
Literature, Calcutta 19-29, p. 28f; C Jl. Narasimha Sarma, Studies in Sanskrit Lft.,
Mysore 1986, pp. 1-80.
100 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
synthetically one whole idea or image within the limits of a
single stanza not only gives a precision and restrained elegance
to the diction, but also presents, in each stanza, a complete
picture in a finely finished form. In this art of miniature word-
painting, of which we have already spoken, Amaru unquestion-
ably excels. The love depicted in his stanzas is often youthful
and impassioned, in which the sense and the spirit meet, with
all the emotions of longing, hope, ecstasy, jealousy, anger, dis-
appointment, despair, reconciliation and fruition. Amaru's
world is indeed different from ours, but his pictures are marked
by a spirit of closeness to life and common realities, not often
seen in the laboured and sustained masterpieces of this period4, as
well as by an emotional yet picturesque directness, by a subtle har-
mony of sound and sense, and by a freedom from mere rhetoric, —
qualities which are not entirely devoid of appeal to modern taste.
But, on the surface, the light of jewelled fancy plays, and makes
beautiful even the pains arid pangs which are inseparable from
the joys and ^ hopes of love. It is not love tossed on the stormy
sea of manhood and womanhood, nor is it that infinite passion
and pain of finite hearts which lead to a richer and wider life.
But, as we have already said, the Sanskrit poet delights in depict-
ing the playful moods of love, its aspects of Llla, in which even
sorrow becomes a luxury. When he touches a deeper chord, the
tone of earnestness is unmistakable, but its poignancy is rendered
pleasing by a truly poetic enjoyment of its tender and pathetic
implications. Rightly does inandavardhana praise the stanzas of
Amaru as containing the veritable ambrosia of poetry; and in
illustrating the theme of love as a sentiment in Sanskrit poetry,
all writers on Poetics have freely used Amaru as one of the original
and best sources. In Sanskrit sentimental poetry, Amaru should
be regarded as the herald of a new developmental' which the result
is best seen in the remarkable fineness, richness of expression and
delicacy of thought and feeling of the love-poems of later
Satakas, of the numerous anthologies^ and even of the poetical
drama.
THE gATAKAS OF BEARISH ARI 161
The same traits as we notice in the Sataka of Amaru are
found more or less in later centuries of love-poems, among
which the 3rhg&ra-£ataka 1 of Bhartrhari must be singled out,
not only for its early date and literary excellence, but also for
the interest which attaches to the legends surrounding the
mysterious personality of the author. Tradition ascribes to him
also two other Satakas, on wise conduct (Nlti) and resignation
(Vairagya), respectively, as well as an exposition of the philo-
sophy of speech, entitled Vakyapadlya.2 Although the last
named work shows little of the softer gift of poetry, it is not
inherently impossible for the poet to turn into a philosophical
grammarian. From the Buddhist pilgrim Yi-tsing we know
that a grammarian Bhartrhari, apparently the author of the
Vakyapadiya, died about 051 A. D. ; and even if his reference
does not make it clear whether Bhartrhari was also the poet of
the three Satakas, his ignoring or ignorance of them need not
be exaggerated. Bhartrhari, the grammarian, was probably a
Buddhist,8 but the fact that the Satakas reveal a Saiva of the
Vedanta persuasion4 does not necessarily justify the supposition
of two Bhartrharis; for, apart from the question of interpolation,
1 Ed. P. Bohlen, with Latin trs., Berlin 1833; also ed. in Haeberlin's Kavya-
a.tingralm p. 14. 'J f., reprinted in Jivananda's Kavya-saipgraha, TI, p. 53 f, which also
contains the Nlti a-id Vairagya at pp. 125 f, 172 f. The Nlti and Vairagya ha\e been edited,
from a number of Mas, and with extracts from commentaries, by K. T. Telang, Bomb Skr. Ser.,
1874, 1885. TI e three Satakas are alto printed, under the title Subbasitatris'atI, with comm.
of Eamucandra Budhendra, NSP, [6th revised ed., Bombay 1022 list ed. 1902]. A ciitical
edition of the Satakas is still a necessity. Eng. trs., in verse, of Nlti and Vairasya by C. H.
Tawney inL4, V, 1876 (reprinted separately, Calcutta 1877); all the Satakas trs. B. H.
Wortliam, Trubner : London 1886; J. M. Kennedy, London 1913; C. W. Gurncr, Calcutta
1027.
2 Sometimes 'he grammatical poem Bhatti-ltavya is ascribed to Ivm, but there ia
nothing more than the name BLatti aa a Prakritised form of Bhartr to support the attribution.
The legends which make Bhartihari a brother of the still IE ore mysterious Vikramaditya is
useless for any historical purpose. The story has been dramatised in later times in the
Bhartrhari-nirveda of Harihara,ed. NSP, Bombay 1912. Cf. Gray in JAOS, XXV, 1904,
p. 197 f; A. V. W. Jackson in JAOS, XXIII, 1902, p. 313 f.
3 See Pathak in JBRAS, XVIII, 1893, p. 341 f; but this view has not found geceral
acceptance.
4 Telang. op. cit.t p. ix f ,
162 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Har§a likewise invokes the Buddha in his Nagananda, but pays
homage to Siva in his Ratndvall.
The texts of the Satakas of Bhartrhari, as they stand, are
much more uncertain and devoid of definite structure than that
of Amaru's Sataka ; and stanzas from them occur in the works
of other well known writers,1 or ascribed to other authors in the
anthologies. The fact, however, -should not be made the ground
of the presumption that Bhartrhari, like Vyasa and Canakya,
is only a name under which miscellaneous compilations were
passed,2 or that Bhartrhari himself incorporated stanzas from
other writers to make up his own poem.3 The argument lacks
neither ingenuity nor plausibility, but very few Satakas, early
or late, have escaped the misfortune of tampering and interpola-
tion; and a critical examination of the textual question is
necessary before the problem can be satisfactorily solved.
There is still nothing to prevent us from accepting the tradition
of Bhartrhari 's original authorship, which is almost uniform and
unbroken, and which does not relegate him (o the position of a
mere compiler.
Nor is there any cogency in the suggestion that the
Sriigara-satalia alone is genuine, made on the alleged ground that
it shows individuality and unity of structure as the product of
a single creative mind. As the text itself is admittedly uncertain,
regarding both originality and order of stanzas--, such surmises,
based on content and style, are always risky ; but there is hardly
anything to justify the position that the Srhgara-sataka can be
sharply distinguished in this or other respects from the Niti- and
Vairagya-satakas. If there is any substance in the legend
recorded by Yi-sting that Bhartrhari vacillated no less than seven
times between the comparative charms of the monastery and the
world, it signifies that the poet who wrote a century of passionate
* E.g. in AbhijnanaMuntala, Mudra-raksasa and Tantrakhyayika ; see Petergon,
Sbhv, pp. 74-75.
* Aufrccht, Leipzig Catalogue, no. 417.
3 Bohlen, op. cit., Prefatio, p. viii.
THE ^ATAKAS OF BHARTRHARI 163
stanzas could very well write the other two centuries on worldly
wisdom and renunciation.
The susceptibility to contrary attractions is evident in all
the three Satakas. The Ntti-£ataka should not be taken as a
mere collection of moral maxims or an epitome of good sense
and prudence; it shows at once a lurking attachment to the
world and an open revulsion from its sordidness. The poet says,
with considerable bitterness, at the outset : " Those who are
capable of understanding me are full of envy ; men in power are
by arrogance disqualified; all others labour under stupidity ; all
my good sayings have, therefore, grown old within myself."
In the same strain, the poet refers to the haughtiness of kings,
to the power of wealth, to the humiliation of servitude, to the
clash of passion and prejudice with culture and education, to the
wicked and the ignorant reviling the good and the wise, and to the
distressing things of life, which he calls darts rankling in his
heart. Nor is the Vairfigyu-sfitaha the work of an ascetic or
inelastic mind. It- gives expression to the passionate pain of an
idealist, whose inborn belief in the goodness of the world
is shattered by the sense of its hollo wness and wickedness.
It refers to the never-ending worries of earning and spending,
of service and perpetual insults to one's self-respect, and of the
wreck of human hopes in the striving for an ideal ; it condemns
the smug complacency of humanity in the midst of disease,
decay and death, and falls back upon the cultivation of a spirit of
detachment.
The vehemence with which Bhartrhari denounces the
joys of life and attractions of love in these two poems is
on a level with his attitude disclosed in his stanzas on
love ; for the 3rhgara-£ataka is not so much a poem on love
as on the essential emptiness of love, an outburst not so much
on its ecstasies and sunny memories by a self-forgetful lover, as
on its darkening sorrows and wrongs by a man v in bitter earnest.
It indicates a frame of mind wavering between abandon and
restraint ; " either the fair lady or the cave of the mountains/1
164 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
"either youth or the forest," " either an abode on the sacred
banks of the Ganges or in the delightful embrace of a young
woman " — sentiments like these are scattered throughout. The
delights of life and love are as much captivating as they are
reprehensible ; the bitterness of the denunciation only indicates
the measure of the terrible fascination which love and life exert
on the poet ; it arises not so much from any innate repugnance
as from the distressing necessity of convincing himself and tearing
away from them. Bhartrhari's philosophy of love is simple:
woman is both joy and sorrow, trouble and appeasement ; there
is continual attraction and continual repulsion ; from loving too
much the poet ceases to love at all and takes to asceticism. A
man of artistic temperament and strong passions, the poet frank-
ly delights in all that is delightful, but it gives him no peace
nor any sure foothold anywhere. The tone is not sombre, but
pungent, and even vitriolic. Bhartrhari inevitably reminds one
of Asvaghosa, by the side of whose indignant outburst against
woman, can be placed his biting interrogation: "Who has
created woman as a contrivance for the bondage of all living
creatures : woman, who is the whirlpool of all doubt, the uni-
verse of indiscipline, the abode of all daring, the receptacle of all
evil, the deceitful soil of manifold distrust, the box of trickery
and illusion, a poison coated with ambrosia, the hindrance to
heaven and a way to the depth of hell?" If the poet sometimes
attains a calmer frame of mind in his two other Satakas on
Niti and Vairagya, his intense conviction is hard-won, and can
be best understood in the light of the powerful longings and
their attendant sufferings which he describes in his Sataka on
love. It is no wonder that his assumption of the yellow garb
so often conflicted with his craving for worldly delights.
Bhartrhari, therefore, differs from Amaru both in attitude
and expression. He is too earnest to believe in the exaltation of
woman as such, even though he cannot withstand the fascina-
tion ; he is too serious to depict in swift succession the hundreds
of tender memories and pleasing pains of love, its flying thoughts
THE 6ATAKAS OF BHAUT&HARI 165
and dancing feelings, its delicate lights and shades, in the same
way as they reflect themselves in Amaru's little poems in their
playful warmth and colour. Bhartrhari's miniature love-stanzas
have not the same picturesqueness of touch, the same delicacy
and elegance of expression, but they gain in intensity, depth
and range,1 because they speak of things which lie at the core
of his being ; they have enough piquancy and sharpness to require
any graceful trimming. If Amaru describes the emotion of love
and the relation of lovers for their own sake and without any
implication for connecting them with larger aspects of life,
Bhartrhari is too much occupied with life itself to forget its
worries, and consider love and women 2 apart from it in any fanciful
or ideal aspect. Amaru has perhaps more real poetry, but
Bhartrhari has more genuine feeling.3
There is a large number of erotic and reflective stanzas
scattered throughout the Sanskrit anthologies, but the absence
or uncertainty of chronological data makes it difficult to separate
the early from the late compositions. If, however, the anthology
poet Dharmaklrti, who is sometimes cited also with the epithet
Bhadanta, be the Buddhist logician and philosopher, he should
1 The metres employed by Bhaitrbaii in the present texts of his three poems are
diversified, but his inclination to long sonorous measures is shown by bis use of Sragdbara
twenty-two times. See L. H. Gray, The Metres of Bhartrhari in JAOS, XX, 1899,
pp. 157-59.
2 It is noteworthy that Amaru always speaks of man's fickleness, and never echoes the
almost universal bitterness regarding woman's inconstancy, which characterises much of
the poetical, as well as religious and didactic, literature. Bhartrbarj, in one passage, re*
commends boldness and even aggressiveness in dealing with women, which the commentator
facetiously explains by saying that otherwise woman will dominate man ! — For a general
appreciation of Bhartrhari, see C. R. Narasimba Sarma, op cit.t pp. 28-56; H. Olden berg,
Lit. d. alien indien, p. 221 f. ; S. K. Det op. cit.t p. 34 f.
3 The attitude of mind, which leaves no alternative between the world and the monag-
tery, between love and renunciation, is not only an individual trait, but seems to have marked
the outlook of a class of Sanskrit poets, who wrote stanzas, applicable by double entente
at once to the themes of enjoyment and resignation. In general also, the Sanskrit poets
have enough simplicity and integrity of feeling to make them grateful for the joys of life, but
penitent when they have exceeded in enjoying them. In such an atmosphere, it is clear, the
idea of the chivalrous Platonic love or the so-called intellectual love could not develop
at all.
166
HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
belong to a period between the 6th and 7th century A.D. The
total number of stanzas independently assigned to him in the
different anthologies1 is about sixteen.2 There is nothing of the
scholar or the pedant in these elegant little poems, which are
generally of an erotic character, and some of them are worthy
of being placed by the side of those of Amaru and Bhartrhari.
II Dharmaklrti, in the intervals of heavier work, wrote such a
collection, its loss is much to be regretted.
2. THE STOTRA-SATAKAS OF BANA, MAYURA AND OTHERS
The vogue into which the Sataka style of poetry came
in this period is also illustrated by the Stotras of Mayura
and Barm, but their spirit, theme and method are different.
The production of hymns in praise of deities obtained from
the Vedic times, but the ancients possessed the secret of making
their religion poetry and their poetry religion. Their descen-
dants lost the art, but evolved a new type of Stotras or poem of
praise and prayer. The Epics, as well as the Puranas and
Tantras of uncertain date, abound in liturgical poems in which
the gods of the new Hindu mythology receive adoration ; while
the Jainas and Buddhists do not stay behind in addressing a
large number of similar religious poems to the deities and
teachers of their own pantheon and hagiology. Some of these
compositions are meant solely for the purpose of sects and
cults ; some are mere theological collections of sacred epithets or
1 For a complete list, see Thomas, Kvs> pp. 47-50, which gives also a list of Dharma-
klrti'e poetical works translated into Tibetan, including two Stotras. Also see Peterson,
Sbhv, pp. 46-48, and in JBRAS, XVI, pp. 172-73; Aufrecht in Ind. Stud., XVI, pp. 204-7,
ZDM G, XXVJI, p. 41:
* Of these, Anandavardhana quotes one (iii, p. 216 ; /at>anya-cira*nna°) with the remark :
tatha c&yaip Dharmafarteh .Mo/ra iti prasiddhih, satflbhavyate ca tasyaiva ; and be adds
another stanza (p. 217) by Dharmaklrti, which is not found in the anthologies. The first of
these stanzas is also quoted and ascribed to DharmakTrti by Kgemendra in his lucitya-
ticara.
THE STOTHA-SATAKAS OF BANA, MAYURA AND OTHERS 167
strings of a hundred or thousand sacred names ; most of them
have a stereotyped form and little individuality ; but the .higher
poetry and philosophy also invaded the field. Asvaghosa's early-
eulogy of the Buddha in Buddha-carita xxvii is unfortunately lor.t
in Sanskrit, while the Stotras of his school, ns well as the spuri-
ous Gandl-stotra of a somewhat later time, are hardly of much
poetical worth. We have, however, two remarkable Stotras to
Visnu and Brahman, both in the Sloka metre; uttered by the
gods in Kalidasa's Raghu0 (\. 16-32) and Kumara0 (iii. 4-15)
respectively, although it is somewhat strange that there is no
direct -Stotra to his beloved deity Siva. In this connexion, a
reference may ba made to a similar insertion of Stotras in the
Mahakavyas of the period, such as the Stava of Mahadeva by
Arjuna in the closing canto of Bharavi's poem, that of Krsna by
Bhisma in $i6upala-vadha xiv, and that of Candl by the gods in
Ratnakara's Ham-vijaya xlvii (167 stanzas). But praise and
panegyric very early become the individual theme of separate
poems ; and an endless number of Stotras has survived.1 They
are mostly late, and of little literary \\orth ; for many have
attempted but very few have succeeded in the exceedingly
difficult task of >acied verse. Their theme and treatment do not
al \vn\s concern Vairagya, but their devotional feeling is undoubt-
ed, and they are seldom merely doctrinal or abstract. Their
objective, however, is not poetry, and they seldom attain its proper
accent. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Sanskrit poeticians
and anthologists do not give much prominence to the Stotra works,
nor consider them worthy of a separate treatment.
The early efforts of Mayura and Banabhatta are not very
impressive for their purely poetic merit, but they illustrate the
early application of the elegant, but distinctly' laboured, manner
of the Kavya and its rhetorical contrivances to this kind of litera-
1 For religious hymnology, in general, a subject which has not yet been adequately
studied, see S. P. Bhattacharyya, The Stotra-Literature of Old India in IHQ, I, 1925,
PD. 340-60, for an eloquent appreciation.
168 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
ture. Mayura is associated,1 chiefly by late Jaina legends, asser-
tions of late commentators and recorded traditions of anthologists,
with Banabbatta as a literary rival in the court of Harsa and as
related by marriage either as brother-in-law or father-in-law.2 The
legends also speak of Mayura's affliction with leprosy by the
angry curse of Bana's wife, Mayura's alleged sister or daughter,
whose intimate personal beauty he is said to have described in
an indiscreet poem. This work is supposed to be identical with
the highly erotic, but rather conventional, poem of eight
fragmentary stanzas, which goes by the name Mayurastaka* and
which describes a fair lady returning from a secret visit to her
lover. Three of its stanzas are in Sragdhara (the metre of Surya-
6ataka) and the rest in Sardulavikridita ; it refers, with more wit
than taste, to the "tiger-sport" of the lady with the "demon of
a lover," and to the beauty of her limbs which makes even an
old man amorously inclined,4 Tf the poem is genuine, it is
possible that such descriptions in the poem itself started the
legend ; but the legend also adds that a miraculous recovery from
the unhappy disease was effected, through the grace of the sun-
god, by Mayura's composing his well-known poem, the Sfiryn-
1 All that is known of Mayura and his genuine and ascribed works will be found in
GK P. Quackenbos, The Sanskrit Poems of Mayura, New York 1917 (Columbia Univ. Indo-
Tranian series^; it gives the works in Roman transliteration, with Erg. trs. and notes, and
also contains the Candt-jataka of Bana with trs. and not^s.
* In the enumeration of tbe friends of his youth, who are said to have been of the saone
age (cayasa samanah), Bana refers in hia Harsa-carila (ed. A. A. Fuhrer, Bombiy 19r9,
p. 67 ; ed. Parab, NSP, Bombay 1892, p. 47, 4th ed., 1914, p. 42) to a certain Jangulika or
snake-doctor, appropriately named Mayuraka, who may or may not be our poet ; but the
earliest mention of the poet Mayura, along with Baija, in the court of Harsa occurs in the
NQvasahasahka-carita (ii. 18» of Padmagupla (about 1005 A.D.). The Inter eulogistic stanza of
Rftjas'ekhara in Sml O'v. 68), however, punningly alludes to the art of the snake-doctor The
earliest anonymous quotation of two stanzas (Nos. 9, 23) from the Sarya-tataka of Mayura
occurs in Inandavardhana's Dhvanydloka (2nd half of the 9th century), ii, p. 92 and 99-100.
There is another much inferior tradition which connects him, along with many other Sanskrit
poets, with king Bhoja of Dhara.
8 Quackenbos, op. ct't., pp. 72.79, text and trs. ; also in JAOS, XXXI, 1911, pp. 843-54.
-4 kenaisd, rati-rak§a$ena ramitd £ardula-vikriditat st. 3; and dfjtv& rupam idarp,
prtyahga-gahanam Vfddho'pi kdmayale, st. $.
THE STOTRA-6ATAKAS OF BINA, MAYURA AND OTHERS 169
fataka,1 in praise of the deity. But it must be said that the
the Sataka gives the impression of being actuated not so much by
piety as by the spirit of literary display. The theme of the
work, which retains in its present form exactly one hundred
stanzas,2 consists of an extravagant description and praise of the
sun-god and his appurtenances, namely, bis rays, the horses that
draw his chariot, his charioteer Aruna, the chariot itself and the
solar disc. The sixth stanza of the poem refers to the suni's
power of healing diseases, which apparently set the legend
rolling ; but the belief that the sun can inflict and cure
leprosy is old, being preserved in the Iranian story of Sam,
the prototype of the Puranic legend of Samba ; it may not
have anything to do with the presumption that the cult of the
sun was popular in the days of Harsa, even if Harsa's father is
described in the Harsa-carita as a devotee of the sun. With all
its devotional attitude, the poem is written in the elaborate
Sragdhara metre ; and its diction, with its obvious partiality
for compound words, difficult construction, constant alliteration,
jingling of syllables and other rhetorical devices,8 is equally
1 Ed. G. P. Quackenbos, as above. Also ed. in Haeberlin, op. ct£.> p, 197 f, reproduced
in Jivananda, op. cit.t II, p. 222 f; ed. Durgaprasad and K. P. Parab with comin. of
Tribhuvanapala, NSP, Bombay 1889, 1927 ; ed. with comra. of Yajnes*vara, in Pothi form,
Baroda Samvat 1928 (=1872 A.D.). The Ceylonese paraphrase (Sanna) by Vilgamrnula"
Mahathera, with text, ed. Don A. de Silva Devarakkhita Batuvantudave, Colombo 1883
(see JRAS, XXVI, 1894, p. 555 and XXVIII, 1896, pp. 215-16).
2 With an apparently spurious stanza at the end, not noticed by the commentator, in
NSP ed., giving the name of the author and the Phala-Sruti. The order of the stanzas,
however, is not the same in all editions and manuscripts ; but this is of little consequence in
a loosely constructed poem of this kind.
3 It ia remarkable that puns are not frequent; and the poem has some clever,
but very elaborate, similes and metaphors, eg., that of the thirsty traveller (st. 14), of
antidote against poison (st. 31), of the day-tree (st. 34), of the dramatic technique
(st. 50) ; there ia a play on the numerals from one to ten (st. 18 j cf. Buddha -carita ii.
41); harsh-sounding series of syllables often occur (st. 6, 98 etc.); while st. 71 is cited
by Mamma{a as an instance of a composition, where facts are distorted in order to effect an
alliteration. The Aksara-<Jambara, which Bana finds in the diction of the Gaudas, is abundant
here, as well as in Ma own Canft-tataka ; and it is no wonder that one of the commen-
tators, Madhusii'laoa (about 1654 A.D.I, gives to both Mayura and Bana the designa-
tion of eastern poets (Pauraatya) .
170 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
elaborate. The quality of graceful and dignified expression and
the flowing gorgeousness of the metre may be admitted ; in fact,
the majesty which this compactly loaded metre can put on has
seldom been better shown ; but the highly stilted and recondite
tendencies of the work have little touch of spontaneous inspira-
tion about them. Whatever power there is of visual presenta-
tion, it is often neutralised by the deliberate selection and
pracfice of laboured tricks of rhetoric. The work is naturally
favoured by the rhetoricians, grammarians and lexicographers,
and frequently commented upon,1 but to class it with the poems
of Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti shows the lack of ability to distin-
guish between real poetry and its make-believe.2
The Candl-$ataka 8 of Bana is of no higher poetical merit ;
it is cited even less by rhetoricians 4 and anthologists, and com-
mentaries on it are much fewer.6 Written and composed in
the same sonorous Sragdhara metre 6 (102 stanzas) and in the
same elaborate rhetorical diction, the poem shows noteworthy
similarity to Mayura's Sataka, and lends plausibility to the
tradition that it was composed in admiring rivalry. The myth
of Candi's slaying of the buffalo-demon is old,, being mentioned
in the Mdhabharata (ix. 44-46) and amplified in the Puranas ;
but Bana makes use of it, not for embellishing the story, but
^for a high-flown panegyric of Candl, including a glorification
1 The number of commentaries listed by Aufrecht is 25; see Quackenbos, op.
cif.f p. 108*
* About 20 stanzas in various metres, not traceable in this work, are assigned tc
Mayura in the anthologies ; some of 'them are clever and less artificial, but are not of mucli
poetical value. For these, see Quackenboa, pp. 229-242. Some of these verses are ascribed to
other poets as well ; see Thomas, Kvst p. 67f .
9 Ed. in Kavyamala, Gucchaka iv, with a Sanskrit comm. : ed. G. P. Quackenbos, at
above, pp. 243-357. There is nothing improbable in Sana's authorship of the work. Arjuna-
varmadeva in the 12th century (on Amaru, st. 1) expressly ascribes this work to Bana and
quotes a stanza from it. There is a picturesque description of a temple of Candika in Bana'i
K&dambart.
4 The earliest quotation is by Bboja, who cites at. 40 and 66.
* Only two or three commentaries are, so far, known.
* With the exception of sis stanzas in Sardulavikridita (nos. 25, 32, 49, 55, 66, 7-2]
may or may not be original, for the variation has no special motive.
THE STOTRA-SATAKAS OF BINA, MAYURA AND OTHERS 171
•
of the power of Candl's left foot which killed the demon by its
marvellous kick ! Bana does not adopt Mayura's method of syste-
matic description of the various objects connected with Candl,
but seeks diversion by introducting, in as many as forty-eight
stanzas, speeches in the first person (without dialogue) by Candl,
Mahisa, Candl's handmaids Jaya and Vijaya, Siva, Karttikeya,
the gods and demons — and even by the foot and toe-nails of
Candl! Bana has none of Mayura'-s elaborate similes, but puns*
are of frequent occurrence and are carried to the extent of
involving interpretation of entire individual stanzas in two ways.
There is an equally marked tendency towards involved and
recondite constructions, but the stylistic devices and love of
conceits are perhaps more numerous and prominent. The work
has ali the reprehensible features of the verbal bombast with
which Bana himself characterises the style of the Gaudas. Even
the long-drawn-out and never sluggish melody of its voluminous
metre does not fully redeem its artificialities of idea and express-
ion, while the magnificent picturesqueness, which characterises
Bana's prose works, is not much in evidence here. To a greater
extent than Mayura's Sataka, it is a poetical curiosity rather
than a real poem ; but it is an interesting indication of the
decline of poetic taste and growing artificiality of poetic form,
which now begin to mark the growth of the Kavya.
One of Baja^ekhara's eulogistic stanzas quoted in the Sukti-
muktavall (iv. 70) connects Bana and Mayura with Matanga (v. I.
Candala) l Div&kara as their literary rival in the court of king
Har?a. Nothing remains of his work except four stanzas quoted
in the Subhasitavali, of which one (no. 2546), describing the sea-
girdled earth successively as the grandmother, mother, spouse and
daughter-in-law, apparently of king Harsa, has been censured for
inelegance by Abhinavagupta. It has been suggested 2 that the
J The G08 edition (Baroda 1938, p. 45) reads Candala, without any variant, but with
the note that the reading Matanga is found in SP. Apparently the latter reading is
sporadic.
1 F. Hall, introd. to Vasavadatta, Calcutta 1859, p. 21, and Maxmuller, India, p. 880,
note 5.
172 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
poet should be identified with Manatunga, the well known Jaina
Scarya and author of two Stotras (namely, the Bhaktamara l in
Sanskrit and Bhayahara 2 in Prakrit), on the ground that some
Jaina tales of miracles 3 connect him with Bana and Mayura.
But the evidence is undoubtedly weak,4 and the presumption that
the three Stotras of Bana, Mayura and this poet were meant
respectively to celebrate sun-worship, Saktism and Jainism
is more schematic than convincing. The date of Manatuiiga
is uncertain ; the Jaina monastic records place him as early
as the 3rd century A.D., but other traditions bring him down
to periods between the 5th and the 9th century A.D. There
is little basis of comparison between Manatunga's Stotra and
the Satakas of Bana and Mayura. It consists of 44 or 48
stanzas, in the lighter and shorter Vasantatilaka metre, in praise
of the Jina Rsabha as the incomparable and almost deified
saint ; but it is not set forth in the A3ir form of Bana and
Mayura's Satakas, being directly addressed to the saint. It
is in the ornate manner, but it is much less elaborate, and the
rhetorical devices, especially punning, are not prominent. Its
devotiorial feeling is unmistakable, but there is little that is
distinctive in its form and content.5
To the king-poet Harsavardhana himself are ascribed,
besides the three well known plays, some Buddhist Stotras of
doubtful poetical value, if not of doubtful authorship. Of these,
1 Ed. Kavyamala, Gucchaka vii, pp 1-10; also ed. and trs. H. Jacob! in Ind. Stud.,
XIV, p. 359f. The title is suggested by the opening words of the poera.
2 Addressed to Jina ParSvanatha, hut the work is not yet printed. In 1309 A.D.
Jinaprablia Suri wrote a commentary on it (Peterson, Report 1882-83, p. 52).
3 The legend of the Jina's delivering Manatunga from his self-imposed fetters, on the
parallel of Ca^di's healing the self-amputated limbs of Bana, is probably suggested by the
general reference in the poem itself to the Jioa's power, apparently in a metaphorical sense,
of releasing the devotee from fetters.
4 See Quackenbos, op. cif., p. 10f.
6 The later Jaina Stotras, in spite of their devotional importance, are not of much
literary value; see Winterniti, HI Lt II, p. 55lf. Even the Kalyana-mandira Stotra (ed.
Kavyamala and Ind. Stud., loc. cit.) of Siddbasena Divakara is a deliberate and much more
laboured imitation of the Bhaktamara in the same metre and same number (44) of stanzas.
THE MAH1KIVYA FROM BHARAVI TO MIGHA 173
the Suprabha or Suprabhata Stotra,1 recovered in Sanskrit, is
a morning hymn of twenty-four stanzas addressed to the Buddha,
in the Malini metre. About a dozen occasional stanzas, chiefly of
an erotic character, but of a finer quality than the Stotra,
are assigned to Harsa in the anthologies, in addition to a large
riumber which can be traced mainly in the Ratnavall and the
Nagananda*
3. THE MAHIKIVYA FROM BHIRAVI TO MIGHA
One of the most remarkable offshoots of the literature of
this period is represented by a group of Kalidasa's direct and
impressive poetical descendants, who made it their business to
keep up* the tradition of the sustained and elevated poetical com-
position, known in Sanskrit as the Mahakavya, but who develop-
ed and established it in such a way as to stereotype it for all
time to come. The impetus, no doubt, came from Kalidasa's two
so-called Mahakavyas, but the form and content of the species
were worked out in a different spirit. It would be unhistorical
in this connexion to consider the definitions of the Mahakavya
given by the rhetoricians^8 for none of them is earlier than
Kalidasa, and the question whether Kalidasa conformed to them
1 Ascribed wrongly to king Har^adeva of Kashmir in Bstan-hgyur and in Minayeff's
manuscripts. It is given in extenso by Thomas in JRAS, 1903, pp. 703-7*22 and reproduced
in App. B. to P. V. Kane's ed. of Harsa-carita, Bombay 1918. See Sbhv, Introd. under
Suprabhata.
2 The anthologioal and inscriptional verses ascribed to Harsa are collected together in
introd. to PriyadamJ:at ed. Nariman, Jackson nnd Ogden, New York 1923, p. xlivf, and
Thomas, Kvs. flee M.L, Ettingbausen, Harsavardhana, Louvain 1906, pp. 161-79.
3 J. Nobel , The Foundations of Indian Poetry, Calcutta 1925, p. 140f. The Mahakavya
or ' Great Poem f is a poetical narrative of heroic characters and exploits, but it is not a work
of the type of the Great Epics, the Mahabharala or the Ramayana, which correspond to our
sense of a heroic poem, but which are classified and distinguished as It hasas. The eminence
denoted by the prefix ' great ' does not refer to the more primitive epic or heroic spirit nor to
directness and simplicity, but rather to the bulk, sustained workmanship and general
literary competence of these more sophisticated and deliberate productions. If an analogy is
permissible, the Mahakavyas stand in the same relation to the Great Epics as the work of
Milton does to that of Homer.
174 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
does not arise. Nor should the group of early poets, with
whom we are occupied here, be supposed to have followed them.
On the contrary, the norm, which even the two earliest rhetori-
cians, Bhamaha (i. 19-23) and Dandin (i. 14-19), lay down
appears to have been deduced from the works of these poets
themselves, especially from those of Bharavi, the main features
of which are generalised into rules of universal application.
As such, the definitions are, no doubt, empirical, but they deal
with accidents rather than with essentials, and do not throw
much light upon the historical or poetic character of these
compositions.
Perhaps for this reason, Vamana (i. 3. 22) brushes aside
the definitions as of no special interest ; but it is important to
note that the rather extensive analysis of Rudrata (xyi. 7-19),
more than that of earlier rhetoricians, emphasises at least one
interesting characteristic of the Mahakavya, as we know them,
when it prescribes the rules for the development of the theme.
Like his predecessors, he speaks indeed of such formal require-
ments as the commencement of the poem with a prayer, blessing
or indication of content, the pursuit of the fourfold ends of
life (conduct, worldly success, love and emancipation), the
noble descent of the hero, the occurrence of sentiments and
ornaments, the division into cantos, the change of metre at
the end of each canto, and so forth ; but he also gives a list of
diverse topics which may be introduced into the main narrative.
These include not only subjects like political consultation,
sending of messengers and spies, encampment, campaign and
triumph of the hero, but also descriptions of towns, citizens,
* oceans, mountains, rivers, seasons, sunset, moonrise, dawn,
sport in park or in water, drinking bouts and amorous dalliance.
All this is, of course, prescri'bed as it is found conspicuously
in Bharavi and Magha ; but Rudrata adds that in due time
the poet may resume the thread of the main narrative, implying
thereby that these descriptions, no matter what their relevancy
\s, should be inserted a&a matter of conventional amplification
THE MAHAKiVYA FROM BHIBAVI TO MXGHA 175
and embellishment, and may even hold up and interrupt the story
itself for a considerable length. This seldom happens in
Kalidasa, in whom the narrative never loses its interest in
subsidiary matters ; but in Bharavi and Magha these banal
topics, loosely connected with the main theme, spread over at least
five (iv, v, viii-x) and six (vi-xi) entire cantos respectively, until
the particular poet has leisure to return to his narrative. While
Bhatti is sparing in these digressions, which are found mostly
scattered in cantos ii, x and xi, Kumaradasa devotes consider-
able space to them (cantos i, iii, viii, ix and xii). Although
there is, in these passages, evidence of fluent, and often fine,
descriptive power, the inventiveness is neither free nor fertile,
but moves in the conventional groove of prescribed subjects and
ideas, and the over-loading of the parts necessarily leads to the
weakening of the central argument.
The motive for such adventitious matter is fairly obvious.
It is meant to afford the poet unchartered freedom to indulge in
his luxuriant descriptive talent and show off his skill and learn-
ing. While it tends to make the content of the poem rich and
diversified, one inevitable result of this practice is that the stciry
is thereby pushed into the backgionnd, and the poetical em-
bellishments, instead of being incidental and accessory, become
the main point of the Mahakavya. The narrative ceases to be
interesting compared to the descriptive, argumentative or erotic
divagations of unconscionable length ; there is abundance, but no
sense of proportion. The theme, therefore, is often too slender
and insignificant; whatever may be there of it is swamped
by a huge mass of digressive matter, on which the poet chiefly
concentrates; and the whole poem becomes, not an organic
whole, but a mosaic of poetic fragments, tastelessly cemented
together.
It must be admitted that there is no lack of interesting
matter in these Mahakavyas, but the matter is deliberately made
less interesting than the manner. The elegant, pseudo-heroic
or succulent passages are generally out of place, but they are an
176 . HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
admirable outlet for the fantastic fancy and love of rhetoric and
declamation which characterise these poets. At the time we
have reached, the stream of original thought and feeling, after
attaining its high-water mark in Kalidasa, was decidedly slacken-
ing. The successors of Kalidjisa pretend to hand down the
tradition of their predecessor's great achievement, but what they
lack in poetic inspiration, they make up by rhetoric in its full
and varied sense. The whole literature is indeed so saturated
with rhetoric that everything, more or less, takes a rhetorical
turn. It seeks to produce, most often successfully, fine effects,
not by power of matter, but by power of form, not by the glow
of inspiration, but by the exuberance of craftsmanship ; and one
may truly say that it is the age of cultivated form. If Kalidasa
left Sanskrit poetry a finished body, the subsequent ages did no
more than weave its successive robes of adornment.
There is, therefore, an abundance of technical skill — and
technical skill of no despicable kind — in the Mahakavyas of this
period, but there is a corresponding deficiency of those subtle and
indefinable poetic powers, which make a composition vital in its
appeal. The rhetoric, no doubt, serves its own purpose in these
poems, and no one can deny its vigour and variety; but it never
goes very far, and often overreaches itself by its cleverness and
excess. It breeds in the poets an inordinate love for itself, which
seduces them to a prolixity, disproportionate to their theme, and
to an extravagance of diction and imagery, unsuitable to their
thought and emotion. This want of balance between matter
and manner, which is rare in Kalidasa and which a true poetic
instinct always avoids, is very often prominent in these lesser
poets ; and their popularity makes the tradition long and deeply
rooted in Sanskrit poetical literature. It degenerates into a
deliberate selection of certain methods and means wholly to
achieve style, and loses all touch of spontaneity and naturalness.
To secure strength, needless weight is superadded, and elasticity
is lost in harmony too mechanically studied. The poets are
never slipshod, never frivolous; they are indeed f ar too serious^ far
THE MAHAKAVYA FROM BHARAVI TO MAGHA 177
•
too sober either to soar high or dive deep. Theirs is an equable
merit, producing a dainty and even effect, rather than a throb-
bing response to the contagious rapture of poetic thought and
feeling. As they never sin against art, they seldom reach the
heaven of poetry.
Nevertheless, the poets we are considering are not entirely
devoid of purely poetic merit, even if they are conscious and
consummate artists. The period, as we see it, is neither sterile
nor inanimate, nor is it supported by the prestige of a single
name. It is peopled with striking figures; and, apart from
smaller poems of which we have spoken, the body of larger works
produced is fairly extensive in quantity and not negligible in
quality. Even if they do not reach the highest level, it is not
necessary to belittle them. The qualities of the literature may
not awn ken the fullest critical enthusiasm, but it is certainly
marked by sustained richness and many-sided fullness. Of the
four greater poets of this period, namely, Bharavi, Bhatti,
Kunmradasa and Magha, it is curious that we possess only a single
work of each. It is not known whether they wrote more works
than what have survived. The verses quoted from these poets
in the anthologies and rhetorical works are generally traceable
in their extant poems ; but in view of the uncertain and fluctua-
ting character of these attributions, the surplus of untraceable
verses need not prove loss of other works which they are conjec-
tured to have written. While Bharavi and Magha select for
their themes particular episodes of the Mahabharata, Bhatti and
Kumaradasa conceive the more ambitious project of rehandling the
entire story of the Ramayana. All the four agree in choosing a
heroic subject from the Epics but their inspiration is not heroic,
and their treatment has little of the simplicity and directness,
as well as the vivid mythological background, of the Epics.
a. Bharavi
Of the composers of the Mahakavya who succeeded
Kalidasa, Bharavi is perhaps the earliest and certainly the
23-1343B
178 HISTORY OF SANSKBIT LITERATURE
foremost. All that is known of him is that he must be placed
much earlier than 634 A.D., at which date he had achieved
poetic fame enough to be mentioned with Kalidasa in the
Aihole inscription of Pulakegin II.1 As the inscription belongs
to the same half-century as that in which Bana flourished, Baiia's
silence about Bharavi 's achievement is somewhat extraordinary ;
but it need not be taken to imply Bbaravi's contemporaneity or
nearness of time to Bana.
The subject-matter of the Kiratarjuniya 2 of Bharavi is
derived from one of the episodes of Arjuna 's career described in
the Vana-parvan of the Mahabharata* Under the vow of twelve
years' exile the Pandavas had retired to the Dvaita forest, v where
the taunt and instigation of DraupadI, supported by the vehe-
ment urging of Bhlma, failed to move the scrupulous Yudhisthira
to break the pledge and wage war. The sage Vyasa appears, and
on his advice they move to the Kamyaka forest, and Arjuna sets
out to win divine weapons from Siva to fight the Kauravas.
Indra, in the guise of a Brahman ascetic, is unable to dissuade
Arjuna, but pleased with the hero's firmness, reveals himself and
wishes him success. Arjuna's austerities frighten the gods, on
whose appeal Siva descends as a Kirata, disputes with him on
the matter of killing a boar, and, after a fight, reveals his -true
form and grants the devotee the desired weapons. This small
,and simple epic episode is selected for expanded and embellished
treatment in eighteen cantos, with all the resources of a refined
and elaborate art. Bharavi adheres to the outline of the story,
1 For the alleged relation of Bharavi and Dan<Jin, see 8. K. De in IHQ, I, 1925, p. 81 f ,
III, 1927, p. 396; also G. Harihara Sastri in IHQ, 111, 1927, p. 169 f, who would place
Bharavi and Dandin at the close of the 7th century. The quotation of a pada of Kirata XIII.
14 in the Kattka on Pan, i. 3, 23, pointed out by Kielhorn (IA, XIV, p. 327), does not advatce
the solution of the question further.
* Ed. N. B. Godabole and K. P. Parab, with the comm. of Mallinatha, NSP, Bombay
1885 (6th ed. 1907); only i-iii, with the cojmm. of Citrabhanu, ed. T. Gnnaputi Sastri,
Trivandrum Skt. Ser., 1918; trs. into German by C. Cappeller in Harvard Orient. Ser., xv,
1912.
3 Bomb, ed., Hi. 27-41.
THE MAHAK&VYA FROM BHARAVI TO MiGHA 179
but he fills it up with a large mass o( matter, some of which have
hardly any direct bearing on the theme. The opening of the poem
with the return of Yudhisthira's spy, who comes with the report of
Suyodhana's beneficient rule, at once plunges into the narrative,
but it also supplies the motive of the following council of war and
gives the poet an opportunity of airing his knowledge of statecraft.
The elaborate description of autumn and the Himalayas, and of
the amorous sports of the Gandharvas and Apsarases in land and
water, repeated partially in the following motif of the practice of
nymphal seduction upon the young ascetic, is a disproportionate
digression, meant obviously for a refined display of- descriptive
powers. Apart from the question of relevancy, Bharavi's
flavoured picture of amorous sports, like those of Magha and
others who imitated him with greater gusto and created a
tradition, is graceless in one sense but certainly graceful in
another ; and there is, in his painting of natural scenery, a
real feeling for nature, even if for nature somewhat tricked and
frounced. The martial episode, extending over two cantos, of
the rally of Siva's host under Skanda's leadership and the fight
with magic weapons, is not derived from the original ; but, in
spite of elaborate literary effort, the description is rather one of a
combat as it should be conducted in artificial poetry, and the
mythical or magical elements take away much of its reality.
Bharavi's positive achievement has more often been belittled
than exaggerated in modern times. Bharavi shares some of the
peculiarities of his time and falls into obvious errors of taste,
but in dealing with his poetry the literary historian need not be
wholly apologetic. His attempt to accomplish astonishing feats
of verbal jugglery in canto xv (a canto wliich describes a battle I)1
1 The puerile tricks of Citra-bandha, displayed in this canto, are said to have originated
from the art of arraying armies in different forms iu the battle-field 1 Bat it is more plausible
that they arose from the practice of writing inscriptions on swords aod leaves. They are
recognised for the first time by Da^in ; but Magha appears to regard ^them (xix.41) as indis-
pensable in a Mahakavja. Rudra^a deals with them in sutne detail, but they are discredited
by Inandavardhana, suffered by Mammata io deference to poetic practice, and summarily
rejected by ViSvanatba.
180 lilSTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
by a singular torturing of the language is an instance of the
worst type of tasteless artificiality, which the Sanskrit poet
is apt to commit ; but it must have been partly the fault of his
time that it liked to read verses in which all or some of the feet
are verbally identical, in which certain vocables or letters are
exclusively employed, in which the lines or feet read the same
backwards or forwards, or in a zigzag fashion. One never meets
with such excesses in Kalidasa ; it is seen for the first time in
Bharavi, We cannot be sure, however, if Bbaravi originated
the practice ; the deplorable taste might have developed in the
interval ; but there can be no doubt that Bharavi succumbed to
what was probably a powerful temptation in his day of rhetorical
display ingeneral and of committing these atrocities in particular,
'His pedantic observation of grammar, his search for recondite
vocabulary, his conscious employment of varied metres are aspects
of the same tendency towards laboured artificiality. His subject,
though congenial, is not original; it is capable of interesting
treatment, but is necessarily conditioned by its mythical charac-
ter, and more so by Bharavi's own idea of art. But these patent,
though inexcusable, blemishes, which Bharavi shares with all the
Mahakavya writers of this period, do not altogether render nuga-
tory his great, though perhaps less patent, merits as a poet and
artist.
Bharavi as a poet and artist is perhaps not often first-rate,
but he is never mediocre. It is seldom that he attains the full,
hauntifig grace and melody of Kalidasa's poetry, but he possesses
not a little of Tvalidasa's charm of habitual ornateness, expressed
with frequent simplicity, force and beauty of phrase and image.
There are occasional bursts of rare and elsewhere unheard music,
but what distinguishes Bharavi is that, within certain narrow but
impregnable limits, he is a master of cultivated expression.. He
has the disadvantage of comi-ng after and not in the first flush of the
poetic energy of the age; his poetry is more sedate, more weighted
with learning jjid technique; but, barring deliberaii^rtificialities,
he is seldom fantastic to frigidity or meditative to dulness.
MAHAKAVYA FROM BHARAVi TO MAGHA .18i
Bharavi 's subject does not call for light treatment.
With his command of polished and stately phrase, he is quite
at home in serious and elevated themes ; but the softer graces
of his style and diction are also seen in the elegant effect which
he imparts to the somewhat inelegant episode, not on love, but
on the art of love, which is irrelevantly introduced, perhaps
chiefly for this purpose. The beauty of nature and of maidens
is an ever attractive theme with the Sanskrit poets,
but even in this sphere which is so universally cultivated,
Bharavi's achievement is of no mean order. Bharavi's
metrical form is also skilled and developed, but his practice is
characterised by considerable moderation. He employs about
twenty-four different kinds of metre in all, most of which,
however, are sporadic, only about twelve being principally
employed.1 Like Kalidasa in his two Mabakavyas, he employs
mostly short lyrical measures, which suit the comparative
ease of his manner, and avoids larger stanzas which encourage
complexities cf expression. There is, therefore, no unnecessary
display of metrical skill or profusion, nor any desire for unlimited
freedom of verse. He gives us, in general, a flawless and
equable music, eminently suited to his staid and stately theme ;
but there is not much of finer cadences or of more gorgeous
melody.
Bharavi's strength, however, lies more in the ^ descriptive
and the argumentative than in the lyric touch ; and this he
attains by his undoubted power of phraseology, which is indeed
not entirely free from indulgence in far-fetched conceits, but
which is never over-gorgeous nor over-stiff. His play of fancy
is constant and brilliant, but there is always a calm and refined
dignity of diction. Bharavi has no love for complicated
1 In each of cantos v and xviii, we find sixteen different kinds of metre, but Bharavi
does not favour much the use of rare or difficult metres Thj only metres of this kin I, which
occur but on'y once eacSi, are J.iloddli-itagiti. Jalidhiramala, Candrika, Mattamayiha,
Kutila and Vaqis'.ipiitrapatita. H« mes, however, Vaita'Iya in ii, Pramitaksara in iv,
Prabars-m in vii, Svagata in ix, Pu$pitagra iu x, Udgua in xii and Aupacchandasika ia xiii.
162 HISTORY Ofr SANSKRIT LITEfeATUllE
compounds ; bis sentences are of moderate length and reasonably
clear and forceful ; there is no perverse passion for volleys of
for abundance of laboured adjectives, or
for complexities of tropes and comparisons. He has the faculty
of building up a poetical argument or a picture by a succession
of complementary strokes, not added at haphazard, but growing
out of and on to one another ; the application has vigour and
variety and seldom leads to tedious verbiage. His phrases often
give a pleasing surprise; they are expressed with marvellous
brevity and propriety j it is impossible to improve upon them;
to get something better one has to change the kind.
Bharavi's poetry, therefore, is seldom overdressed, but bears
the charm of a well-ordered and distinctive appearance. Of the
remoter and rarer graces of style, it cannot be said there is none,
but Bharavi does not suggest much of them. The Artha-gaurava
or profundity of thought, which the Sanskrit critics extol in
Bharavi, is the result of this profundity of expression ; but it
is at once the source of his strength and his weakness. His
maturity of expression is pleasing by its grace and polish ; it
is healthful by its solidity of sound and sense ; but it has little
of the contagious enthusiasm or uplifting magnificence of great
poetry. One comes across fine things in Bharavi, striking,
though quaintly put, conceits, vivid and graceful images, and
even some distinctly fascinating expressions ; but behind every
clear image, every ostensible thought or feeling, there are no
vistas, no backgrounds ; for the form is too methodical and the
colouring too^ artificial, Nevertheless, Bharavi can refine his
expression without making it jejune ; he can embellish his idea
without making it fantastic. His word-music, though subdued,
is soothing ; his visual pictures, though elaborate, are convin-
cing. If he walks with a solemn tread, he knows bis foothold
and seldom makes a false step. In estimating Bharavi's
place in Sanskrit poetry, we must recognise that he cannot give
us very great things, but what he can give, he gives unerringly;
he is a sure master of his own crafty
THR MAHAKIVYA FROM BHARAVI TO MAGHA 183
b. Bhatti
Bhatti, author of the Ravana-vadha,1 which is more usually
styled Bhatti-kavya presumably after his name, need not detain
us long. The poet's name itself cannot authorise his identifica-
tion with Vatsabhatti of the Mandasor inscription,2 nor with
Bhartrhari, the poet-grammarian. We are told in the concluding
stanza 8 of the work that it was composed at Valabhi ruled over
by Srldharasena, but since no less than four kings of this name
are known to have ruled at Valabhi roughly between 495 and
641 A.D., Bhatfci lived, at the earliest, in the beginning of the
6th century, and, at the latest, in the middle of the 7th.4
The so-called Mahakavya of Bhatti seeks to comprehend,
/hi twenty cantos, the entire story of the Ramayana up to Kama's
return from Lanka and coronation ; but it is perpetrated deli-
berately to illustrate the rules of grammar and rhetoric. It Is,
in the words of the poet himself, like a lamp to those whose eye
is* grammar; but without grammar, it is like a mirror in the
hands of the blind. One can, of course, amiably resolve to read
the work as a poem, ignoring its professed purpose, but one
will soon recognise the propriety of the poet's warning
that the composition is a thing of joy to the learned, and
that it is not easy for one, who is less gifted, to understand
it without a commentary. Sound literary taste will hardly
justify the position, but there is not much in the work itself
which evinces sound literary taste.
1 Ed. Govinda Sankar Bapat, with comm. of Jayarnatigala, NSP, Bombay 1887
ed. K. P. Trivedi, with comro. of Mallinatha, in Bomb. Skt. Ser., 2 vols., 1898; ed. J. N
Tarkaratna, with comm. of JayamaAgala and Bbaratamallika, 2 vols., Calcutta 1871-78
(reprint of Calcutta ed. in 2 vols., 1808).
2 As suggested by B. C. Majumdar in JRAS, 1904, p. 306f ; see Keith in JRAS, 1909,
p. 435.
3 The stanza is not commented upon by Mallinatha.
4 See Hultzsch in ZDMG, LXXI1, 1908, p. 145ft The work is of course known to
Bbamaha, but since Bhamaha's date itself is uncertain, the fact is not of much chronological
value. On the relation of Bbat^i'a treatment of poetic figures to that of Bbamaha, see
S. K, De, Santkrit Poetict, I, pp. 61-57.
384 HISTORY OP SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Apart from its grammatical ostentation, the poem suffers
from a banal theme. Bhatti attempts some diversity by intro-
ducing speeches and conceits, as well as occasional description of
seasons and objects, but the inventions are negligible, and the
difficult medium of a consciously laboured language is indeed a
serious obstacle to their appreciation. What is a more serious
drawback is that the poet has hardly any freedom of phraseology,
which is conditioned strictly by the necessity of employing only
those words whose grammatical forms have to be illustrated
methodically in each stanza; and all thought, feeling, idea or
expression becomes only a slave to this exacting purpose. It
must be said, however, to Bhatti's credit that his narrative flows
undisturbed by lengthy digressions ; that his diction, though
starched and weighted by grammatical learning, is without
complexities of involved construction and laboured compounds;
that, in spite of the inevitable play of word and thought, there
is nothing recondite or obscure in his ideas; and that his versi-
fication,1 though undistinguished, is smooth, varied and lively.
Even very generous taste will admit that here practically
ends all that can be said in favour of the work, but it does not
very much improve its position as a poem. If one can labour
through its hard and damaiginj^^ one will
doubtless find a glimmering of fine and interesting things. But
Bhatti is a writer of much less original inspiration than his
contemporaries, and his inspiration comes from a direction other ,
than the purely poetic. The work is a great triumph of artifice,
and perhaps more reasonably accomplished than such later
triumphs of artifice as proceed even to greater excesses; but that is
a different thing from poetry. Bhatti's scholarliness has justly
propitiated scholars, but the self-imposed curse of artificiality
1 Like tbe early Mahakavya poets, Bhatti limits himself generally to shorter lyrical
metres; lor ger metres like Mandakranta, SardiilavikrTdita and fragdhara being used but
rarely. The £loka (iv-ix, xiv-xxii) and Upajati i, ii, xi, and xii) are bis chief metres. Of
uncommon metres, AiSvalalita, Nandana, Narkutaka, and Prabaranakaliba occur only once
each.
THE MAHAKIVYA FROM BHIRAVI TO MAGHA 185
neutralises whatever poetic gifts he really possesses. Pew read
his worst, but even his best is seriously flawed by his unfor-
tunate outlook ; and, unless the delectable pursuit of poetry ie
regarded as a strenuous intellectual exercise, few can speak of
Bhatt-i's work with positive enthusiasm.
c. Kumaradasa
Kumaradasa, also known as Kuinarabhatta or Bhatta
Kumara, deserves special interest as a poet from the fact that
he consciously modelled his Janakl-harana.1 in form and spirit, on
the two Mahakavyas of Kalidasa, even to the extent of frequently
plagiarising his predecessor's ideas and sometimes his phrases.
This must have started the legend2 which makes this great
admirer and follower of Kalidasa into his friend and
contemporary, and inspired the graceful but extravagant, eulogy
of Kajasekhara,3 quoted in the Sukti-muktavali (4. 76) of
Jahlana. A late Ceylonese tradition of doubtful value identifies
our author with a king of Ceylon, named Kumaradhatusena or
Kumaradasa (circa 517-26 A. D.), son of Maudgalayana. Even
if the identity is questioned, 1 the poet's fame was certainly
widely spread in the 10th century ; for the author of the Kavya-
mimamta (p. 12) refers to the tradition of the poet's being born
1 Reconstructed and edited (with the Sinhalese Sauna), cantos i-xv and one verse of xxv,
by Dharmarama Sthavira, in Sinhalese characters, Colombo 1891 ; the same prepared in
Devanagarl, by Haridas Fastri, Calcutta 1893; i-x, ed. G. R. Nandargikar, Bombay 1907
(the ed. utilises some Devanagarl Mss, but most of these appear to owe their origin to the
Sinhalese source); xvi, ed. L. D. Barnett from a Malay alam Ms in BSOS9 IV, p. 285f,
(Roman text\ to wl»i h addl. readings furnished from a Madras Ms by S. K. Be in BSOS,
IV, p. 611f.
2 Rhys Davids in JRAS, 1888, pp. 148-49.
3 The stanza punningly states that no one, save Kumaradasa, would dare celebrate the
abduction of Slta (Janakl-harana) when Raghuvamta was current, as no one but Ravana would
dare accomplish the deed when Raghu's dynasty existed.
4 Keith in JRAS, 1901, p. 578f. Nandargikar, Kumaradasa and his Place in Skt. Lit. %
Poona 1008, argues for a date between the last quarter of the 8th and the first quarter of
the 9th century A. D., which seem* quite reasonable. RajasVkhara (Kdvya-mimdinsd ed.
&OS, 1916, p. 26) quotes anonymously Janaki* harana, xii. 37 (madarp navai$varya).
2f_ 1343B
186 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
blind, and Kumaradasa's stanzas are quoted in the Sanskrit
anthologies dating from about the same time.1
The entire Sanskrit text of the Janahi-harana has not yet
been recovered, but the Sinhalese literature has preserved a
Sanna or word-for-word gloss of the first fourteen cantos and of
the fifteenth in part,2 which brings the story down to Angada's
embassy to the court of Eavana. From this gloss it has been
possible to piece together a text, which is perhaps not a perfect
restoration, but which cannot diverge very far from the
original.8 The extent of the original work is not known, but since
the gloss also preserves the colophon and the last stanza of
canto xxv, giving the name of the work and the author, it is
probable that the poem concluded with the theme of Rama's
coronation apparently bandied in this canto. If this is
correct, then it is remarkable that Kumaradasa's poem
exactly coincides, in the extent of its subject-matter, with
the work of Bhatti.4 Like the Ravana-vadha, again, the
Janakt-hararia suffers from a banal theme derived from the Epic,
although Kumaradasa's object and treatment are entirely
different. In the handling of the story, Kumaradasa follows his
original fairly faithfully ; but, for diversity, poetical descriptions
and episodes are freely introduced. In the first canto, for
instance, a picture of Ayodhya, which is rivalled by the account
of Mithila in canto vi, is given, while the sports of Da^aratha
1 For the citations see Thomas, Kvs. pp, 84-36. K§emendra in bis Aucitya-vicara*
(ad 24) wrongly ascribes a stanza to Kumaradasa, of which one foot ia already* quoted bj
Pitaftjali. Whether the poet knew the Katika (circa 650 A-D.) is debatable (see Thomas in
JRAS, 1901, p. 266) ; and Vamana's prohibition (v. 1.5) of the use of khalu has no particulai
reference to Kumaradasa. These and such other references are too indefinite to admit ol
any decisive inference.
1 The Madras Ms existing in the Govt. Orient. Mas Library, contains twentj
cantos, but it is a very corrupt transcript of an unknown original, and it ia not
known how far it is derived ultimately from the Sinhalese Sanna. The last verae of the Mg
describes Kumaradata as king of Ceylon and son of Kumaramani.
L^|UmaDn in WZKM* V1I» 1893' PP- 226-32; F. W. Thomaa in JRAS, 1901
pp. 204-OQ.
* For an analysis of the poem, see the article of Thomas, cited above.
TEE MAHAKAVYA FROM BHiRAVI TO MIGHA 187
and his wives in the garden are described in canto Hi. We have
a fine description of the rainy season in canto xi, while the next
canto matches it with a picture of autumn. In most of these
passages the influence of Kalidasa is transparent. Da^aratha's
lecture to Rama on the duties of kingship has no counterpart in
Kalidasa's poems; but the appeal to Visnu in canto ii, the des-
cription of spring in canto Hi, the entire canto viii on the
dalliance of Kama and Slta after marriage, and Sita's lovelorn
condition (Purva-raga) before marriage in the preceding canto,
inevitably remind one of similar passages and episodes in Kalidasa's
two poems. But these digressions are neither too prolix nor too
numerous^ and the interest of the narrative is never lost. In
this respect Kuinaradasa follows the manner of Kalidasa rather
than that of Bharavi, and has none of the leisurely and extended
scale of descriptive and erotic writing which prevails in the later
Mahakavyas,
The incomplete and not wholly satisfactory recovery of
Kumaradasa's work makes it difficult to make a proper estimate ;
but the remark is not unjust that the Janaki-harana, as a poemA
is more artificial than the Raghu-varriSa and the Kumara-
sambhava, perhaps more than the Kiratarjuniya, but it does not
approach, in content, form and diction, the extravagance of
the later Kavya. Some of Kumaradasa's learned refinements
take the form of notable grammatical and lexicographical pecu-
liarities, and of a decided love for circumlocution, alliteration
and dainty conceits, but none of these propensities take an undue
or elaborate prominence. His metrical skill is undoubted, but
like Kalidasa in his two longer poems, he prefers short musical
metres and does not seek the profusion or elaboration of shifting
or recondite rhythmic forms.1 Although. Kumaradasa has a weak-
ness for the pretty and the grandiose, which sometimes strays
into the ridiculous, he is moderate in the use of poetic figures ;
there is some play upon words, but no complex puns.
1 The only uncommon, bat minor* metre ia Avitaiha.
188 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Although Kumaradasa' s poem furnishes easy and pleasant
reading, his poetic power is liable to be much overrated. The
compliment which ranks him with Kalidasa, no doubt* perceives
some superficial similarity, but Kumaradasa's originality in
treatment, idea and expression is considerably impaired by his
desire to produce a counterfeit. Possessed of considerable
ability, he both gains and loses by coming after Kalidasa. He
has a literary tradition, method and diction prepared for him for
adroit employment, but he has not the genius to rise above them
and strike out his own path. With inherited facility of execu-
tion, he lo^es individuality and distinction. Kumaradasa is a
well-bred poet who follows the way of glittering, but not golden,
poetic mediocrity : he is admirable but not excellent, learned
but not pedantic, neat but not overdressed, easy hut not simple.
He has a gift of serviceable rhetoric and smooth prosody, but he
is seldom brilliant and outstanding. He has a more than com-
petent skill of pleasing expression, but he lacks the indefinable
charm of great poetry. It is not easy to feel as much enthusiasm
for Kumaradasa as for Bharavi ; but it is not just on that account
to deny to him a fair measure, though by comparison, of the
extraordinarily diffused poetic spirit of the time.
d. Magha
The usually accepted date for Magha is the latter part of the
7th century A.D. The approximation is reached by evidence
which is not altogether uncontestable ; but what is fairly certain
is that the lower terminus of his date is furnished by the quota-
tion from his poem by Vamana and Anandavardhana l at the fend
of the 8th .and in the middle of the 9th century A.D. respectively,
1 Dhvany&loka, ed. N8P, 1911, Second Uddyota, pp. 114, 115 = <5/^u v. 20 and iii. 58.
A little earlier (end of the 8th century) Vatnana quotes from Maghft^^ii^/?ji^l2, 16»Kdvy&L
v. 1.10, v, 2.10; x. 21=*v. 1. 13; xiv. 14=iv. 3. jfc MukulabhaMa^
(ed. N8P, Bombay 1916, p. 11) similarly quotes- &ta° iii, *Q — -^
THE MAH5KIVYA FROM BHIRAVI TO MIGHA 189
and the upper terminus by the very likely presumption that he
is later than Bharavi whom he appears to emulate. There are
five stanzas appended to Mcigha's poem which give, in the third
person, an account of his family, and which are commented upon
by Vallabhadeva, but not by Mallinatha. From these verses we
learn that Magha's father wasDattaka Sarvasraya, and his grand-
father Suprabhadeva was a minister of a king named Varmala.
An attempt has been made to identify this Varmala (v.l.
Varmalata, Dharmanabha or -natha and Nirmalata) with king
Varmalata, of whom an inscription of about 625 A.D. exists.1
But neither is this date beyond question, nor the identification
beyond all doubt.
Like Bharavi, with whom Magha inevitably invites
comparison, Magha derives the theme of his Stiupala-vadha 2
from a well known episode of the Mahabhdrata ; 8 but the
difference of the story, as well as perhaps personal predilection,
makes Magha glorify Krsna, in the same way as Bharavi honours
Siva. At Yudhisthira's royal consecration, Bhisma advises
the award of the highest honour to Krsna, but Sisupala, king of
the Cedis, raises bitter protest and leaves the hall. In the quarrel
which ensues, Sisupala insults Bhisma and accuses Krsna of mean
1 See Kielhorn in Gottinger Nachrichten, 1900, pp. 143-46, and in JRAS, 1908, 409f ;
R. G. Bhandarkar, Report 1897, pp. xviii, xxxix ; D. R. Bbaudarkar in EI9 IX, p« I87f ; Pathak
in JBRAS, XXIII, pp. 18-31 ; Kane in JBRA8, XXIV, pp. 91-95 ; D. C Bhattacharyya in IAt
XLVI, 1917,p.l91f;H. Jacob! in WZKM, III, 1889, pp. 121f, and IV, 1890, p. 236f ; Klatt
in WZKM, TV, p. 61 f. The minor arguments that Magha knew the Kdsikd or the Nydsa of
Jitendrahuddhi (Si£u* ii. 112)f or the Ndganandaof Harsa (xx. 44) are, for the iniefinitenesa
of the allusions, hardly worth much. The Jaina legends have bocn invoked to prove that
Magha was a contemporary of the poet Siddha (about 905 A.D.), but th* legends only show
that the Jainaa made u?e of famous men ia tlieir anecdotes, and nothing more. More worth-
less is the Bhoja-pTabandha account which makes Magha, as aUo m my other poets, a contem-
porary of King Bhoja. The legend related in Merutunga> Prabandha-cMamani is equally
useless. *
8 ed. Atmaram Sastri Vetal and J. S. Hosing, with oomm^ o Vallabhadeva and
Mallinatha, Kftshi Skt. Ser, no. 69, 1929; ed. Durgaprasad and Sivadatta.
NSP, Bombay 1888, 9th ed. 1927, with coram. of M&llinatha only. Trs. into German by E.
Hultzsch, Leipzig 1929, «S|ia ^tracts, by a Cappeller (Balamagha), Stuttgart 1915, with
text in roraan characters. &
190 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
tricks, including theft of his affianced bride. Having endured
SiiSupala's insolence so far, on account of a promise to his mother
to bear a hundred evil deeds of her son, Krsna now feels that he
is relieved of the pledge, and severs the head of SUupala with
his discus. The epic story here is even simpler and more devoid
of incidents than the episode of Arjuna's fight with the Kirata,
but it contains a number of rival speeches, which give Magha
an opportunity of poetical excursions into the realm of politics
and moralising, vituperation and panegyric. The outline of the
epic story is accepted, but its slenderness and simplicity are ex-
panded and embellished, in twenty cantos, by a long series of
descriptive and erotic passages deliberately modelled, it seems,
upon those of Bharavi, A variation is introduced in the first
canto by the visit of Narada to Krsna at the house of Vasudeva,
with a message from Indra regarding the slaying of Si^upala ;
but it has its counterpart in Bharavi's poem in the visit of Vyasa
to Yudhis^hira. A similar council of war follows, in which
Baladeva advises expedition and Uddhava caution ; and the know-
ledge of statecraft displayed by Uddhava corresponds to that
evinced by Bhima in Bharavi's poem. After this, Magha, like
Bharavi, leaves the narrative and digresses into an even more
luxuriant^ but disproportionate, mass of descriptive matter ex-
tending practically over nine cantos (iv-xii), as against Bharavi's
seven. Krsna's journey to Indraprastha to attend Yudhisthira's
consecration and the description of the mount Raivataka, which
comes on the way, correspond to Arjuna's journey and description
of the Himalayas ; and Magha wants to surpass Bharavi in the
Display of his metrical accomplishment by employing twenty-
four different metres in canto iv, as opposed to Bharavi's sixteen
in canto v. The amours and blandishments of the Apsarases
and Gandharvas in Bharavi are rivelled with greater elaboration
and succulence Tsy the amorous frolics of the Yadavas with
women of fulsome beauty ; and it is remarkable that in some of
these cantos Magha selects the same metres (Prahar§inl and
Svagata) as Bharavi does. Magha makes a similar, but more
THE MAHAKSVYA FROM BHARAVI TO MIGHA 191
extensive, exhibition of his skill in the over-ingenious construction
of verses known ns Citra-bandha (canto xix), and follows his
predecessor in introducing these literary acrobatics in the descrip-
tion of the battle, although the battle-scenes are depicted, in both
cases, by poets who had perhaps never been to a battle-field !
It is clear that the tradition, for once, is probably right
in implying that Magha composed his $i$upala-vadha with a
view to surpass Bharavi's Kiratarjumya by entering into a com-
petetion with him on his own ground.1 The orthodox Indian
•opinion thinks (with a pun upon their respective names) that
Magha has been able to eclipse Bharavi completely, and even
goes further in holding that Magha unites in himself Kalidasa's
power of metaphorical expression, Bharavi's pregnancy of thought
and Dandin's gracefulness of diction. While making allowance
for exaggeration not unusual in such indiscriminate praise, and
also admitting freely that Magha can never be mentioned lightly
by any one who loves Sanskrit poetry, it is difficult for a reader
of the present day to share this high eulogy. Magha's deliberate
modelling of his poem on that of Bharavi, with the purpose
of outdoing his predecessor, considerably takes away his original-
ity, and gives it the appearance of a tremendous effort.) He can
claim the literary merits of Bharavi, but he also exaggerates
some of Bharavi's demerits. In respect of rhetorical skill and
exuberance of fancy, Magha is not unsuccessful, and may have
even surpassed Bharavi; but the remark does not apply in respect
of real poetic quality, although it would not be just to deny to
him a gift, even by comparison, of real poetry.
But Magha's work, though not great, has been distinctly
undervalued in modern times, as it was once overvalued. It is
The question of Magha s ralationship to Bharavi has been discussed by Jacob! (in
WZKM>llltm$t pp. 121-40) by a detailed examination of the structure of the two poeuas,
their form, content and parallel passages, with the conclusion that Bharavi's poem served as
a model for that of Magha. Jaoobi (p. 141 f.) further wants to show that Bana and
Subandhu borrowed from M&gba, but the parallelisms adduced are not definite enough to be of
192 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
impossible to like or admire Magha heartily, and yet there are
qualities which draw our reluctant liking and admiration. His
careful and conscientious command of rhetorical technique is
assured. He has an undoubted power of copious and elegant
diction, and his phraseology and imagery often attain a fine,
though limited, perfection. OHis sentences have movement, ease
and balance ; and the variety of short lyrical metres,1 which he
prefers, gives his stanzas swing and cadence. Magha himself
tells us that a good poet should have regard for sound and sense,
and so he cultivates both. Like Bharavi, he is a lover of har-
monic phrases and master of cultivated expression, but he is
perhaps more luxuriant, more prone to over-colouring, and more
consciously ingenious. He can attain profundity by a free
indulgence in conceit, but he is never abstruse. Fine felicities
or brilliant flashes are not sporadic ; and Magha's faculty of
neat and pointed phrasing often rounds off his reflective passages
with an epigrammatic charm. He does not neglect sense for
mere sound, but the narrative is of little account to him, as to
most Kavya poets ;Cand the value of his work lies in the series
of brilliant and highly finished word-pictures he paints} Prom
the hint of a single line in the Epic, he gives an elaborate picture
of Yudhisthira's consecration ; and he must bring in erotic
themes which are even less relevant to his subject than
that of Bharavi. In his poetry the Sastric learning and
the rhetorical art of the time come into full flower, but it
lacks the flush and freshness of natural bloom.) | At every step
we go, we are stopped to admire some elegant object, like
walking in a carefully trimmed garden with a guide. \ Magha
can make a clever use of his knowledge of grammar, lexicon,
statecraft, erotics and poetics ; he can pour his Jancy into a
faultless mould ; but it is often an uninspired and uninspiring
accomplishment. He would like to raise admiratioa to its
1 On metres which Magha employs! see Belloai-Pbillipi, La Metrica degli Indi,
Fiwnze 1912, ii, p. 55; Keith, HSLt pp. ld'j-31- On metrical licences of Magha, see
F*cobi in Ind. Stud, xvii, p. 444 f. and in Verharid L dee V OrientaUtten>CoHgr48g, p. 136 ft
THE MAHAKiVYA FROM BHARAVI TO MAG HA 193
height in every line, so that in the end the whole is not
admirable. Of real passion and fervour he has not much, and
he does not suggest much of the supreme charm of the highest
poetry ; but he has a soft richness of fancy, which often inclines
him towards sweetness and prettiness. Like Bharavi, he is a
poet, not of love, but of the art of lovej but he can refine the
rather indelicate theme of amorous sports with considerable
delicacy. It is perhaps not fortuitous that Magha selects Krsna,
and not Siva, as his favourite god. The Indian opinion speaks
highly of his devotional attitude, and Blrisma's panegyric of
Krsna, to which Bharavi has nothing corresponding, is often
praised; but one at once observes here the difference in the
temperament of the two poets.
There can be no doubt that Magha is a poet, but his poetic
gift is considerably handicapped by the fact that he is in verse
a slave, and a willing slave, to a cut-and-dried literary conven-
tion. He appears to possess a great reserve of power, but he
never seems to let himself go. Tie does not choose to seek out an
original path for himself, but is content to imitate, and outstrip,
if possible, his predecessor by a meretricious display of elaborate-
ness and ingenuity. The sobriquet Ghnnta-Magha, which lie is
said to have won by his clever fancy in comparing a hill, set in
the midst of sunset and moonrise, to an elephant on whose two
sides two bells are hung, is perhaps appropriate in bringing out
this characteristic ; but it only emphasises his rhetorical quality,
which is a different thing from the poetical, although the quaint
simile is not a just specimen of what he can do even in the
rhetorical manner. ( Magha's extraordinary variety, however,
is conditioned by corresponding inequality. His poem is a careful
mosaic of the good and the bad of his predecessors, some of
whose inspiration he may have caught, but some of whose
mannerisms he develops to no advantage. Apart from deliberate
absurdities, the appearance of his poetry is generally irreproach-
able, with its correct make-up, costume and jewellery, but one
feels very often that its features are insignificant and its
AJC 1O4OD
194 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
expression devoid of fire and air* The fancy and vividness of
some of his pictures, the brilliancy and finish of his diction
make one feel more distinctly what is not there, but of which
Magha is perhaps not incapable. The extent of his influence
on his successors, in whose estimation he stands even higher
than Kalidasa and Bharavi, indicates the fact that it is Magha,
more than Kalidasa and Bharavi, who sets the standard of later
verse-making ; but the immense popularity of his poem also
shows that there is always a demand for poetry of a little lower
and more artificial kind.
4. THE GNOMIC, DIDACTIC AND SATIRIC POEMS
Although it is difficult to distinguish between gnomic and
didactic verse, the two Satakas of Bhartrhari on Niti and
Vairagya may be taken as partially typical of the didactic
spirit and possessing a higher value ihan, say, the collection of
gnomic stanzas, which pass current under the name of Canakya
and contain traditional maxims of sententious wisdom. Of the
pronounced didactip type this period does not possess many
other specimens than the Satakas of Bharlrhari, unless we regard
the Moha-mudgara1 for Dvadasa-panjarika Stotra) as one of the
genuine works of the great Samkara. This latter work, however,
is a small lyric, rather than didactic, outburst of seventeen
stanzas, finely inspired by the feeling of transitoriness of all
mortal things; while its moric Pajjhatika metre and elaborate
rhyming give a swing and music to its verses almost unknown
in Sanskrit, and probably betoken the influence of Apabram&t
or vernacular poetry. As such, it is doubtful if it can be
dated very early, but it is undoubtedly a poem of no small
merit.
The gnomic spirit, however, finds expression from remote
antiquity in many aspects of Indian literature. Such tersely
1 Ed. J Haeberh'n in Kavya»*rpgraba, Calcutta 1847, p, 263f, reprinted in
J. Vidyasagar in Kavyasamgrahft, Calcutta 1888, p. 352 ; text and trs. 1 y P. Neve in JAt xii,
P. 607f. For Stotras ascribed io Saipkara, see below under cb, VI (PevofcionaJ Poetry).
GNOMIC, DIDACTIC AND SATIRIC POEMS 195
epigrammatic sayings, mostly composed in the Sloka metre,
appear in the Niti sections of the two great Epics, in the
Puranas, in the law-books and in the tales and fables, while some
of the earlier moral stanzas occurring in the Brahmanas perhaps
helped to establish the tradition in the later non-Sanskritic
Buddhist and Jaina literature. But the stanzas are mostly
scattered and incidental, and no very early collection has come
down to us, although the Mahabharata contains quite rich
masses of them in the Santi, Anusasana, Prajagara. section of the
Udyoga and other Parvans. That a large number of such stanzas
formed a part of floating literature and had wide anonymous
currency is indicated by their indiscriminate appropriation
and repetition in various kinids of serious and amusing
works mentioned above; but it would be hardly correct to say
that they represent popular poetry in the strict sense of the term.
They rather embody the quintessence of traditional wisdom, the
raw materials being turned into finished literary products, often
adopted in higher literature, or made the nucleus of ever-growing
collections. They are of unknown date and authorship, being
the wit of one and wisdom of many ; but they were sometimes
collected together and conveniently lumped upon some apocryphal
writer of traditional repute, whether he £)e Vararuci, Vetala-
bha^ta or Canakya. But the collections are often dynamic, the
process of addition going on uninterruptedly for centuries and bring-
ing into existence various versions, made up by stanzas derived
from diverse sources. The content of such compilations is thus
necessarily varied, the stanzas being mostly isolated but some-
times grouped under particular heads, and embraces not only
astute observations on men and things but also a great deal of
polity, practical morality and popular philosophy. There is no-
thing deeply original, but the essential facts of life and conduct
are often expressed with considerable shrewdness, epigrammatic
wit and wide experience of life. The finish of the verses naturally
varies, but the elaborately terse and compact style of
expression, sometimes with appropriate antithesis, metaphors and
196 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
similes, often produces the pleasing effect of neat and
clever rhetoric ; and their deliberate literary form renders all
theories of popular origin extremely doubtful.
It is unfortunate that most of the early collections are
lost while those which exist are undatable ; but the one ascribed
to Canakya and passed off as the accumulated sagacity of the great
minister of Candragupta appears to possess a fairly old tradi-
tional nucleus, some of the verses being found also in the Epics
and elsewhere. It exists in a large number of recensions, of which
at least seventeen have been distinguished,1 and it is variously
known as Canakya-nlti* Ganakya-$ataka,* Canakya-nlti-darpana,4
Vrddha-canakya5 or Laghu-canakya.G The number of verses in
each recension varies considerably, but the largest recension
of Bhojaraja, in eight chapters, preserved in a Sarada
manuscript, contains 576 verses in a variety of metres, among
which the Sloka predominates.7 Whether the lost original,
as its association with Canakya would imply, was a deliberate
work on polity is not clear, as the number of verses devoted to
this topic in all recensions is extremely limited ; but there can
be no doubt that, both in its thought and expression, it is one
of the richest and finest collections of gnomic stanzas in Sanskrit,
many of which must have been derived from fairly old sources.
1 Oscar Kresaler, Stimmen indischer Lebensklugheit (Tndica, Heft 4), Leipzig 1907,
pp. 38-46. Five recensions (viz.) Canakya-nlti«£astra, Canakya-niti-^ataka Laghu-eanakya,
Vrddha -canakya and Canakya-sloka) are printed in Roman transliteration, with translation of
previously unpublished stanzas, by Eugene Monseur, Paris: Ernest Leroux 1887. See aluo
Weber Ind. Streifen, I, pp. 253-78.
2 Ed. Mirzapore 1877 ; also a somewhat different version, ed. Agra 1920, mentioned by
Kressler.
3 Ed. J. Haeberlin, op. cit.9 reprinted by J. Vidyasagar, op. cit.9 II, p. 385f.
* Ed. Mathuraprasad Misra, Benares 1870 ; reprinted many times at Benares..
* Ed. Bombay 1868; trs. by Kressler, op. cit.t p. 151f. It has 840 verses in 17 chapters
of equal length,
< Ed. Agra 1920, as above ; also ed. E. Teza (from Galanos Ms), Pisa 1878.
7 The other metres in their order of frequency are : Indravajra, SardulavikrKjita, Vasanta*
tilaka, Vftms'athavila, SikbarinI, Arya and Sragdhara, besides sporadic Drntavilambita,
PuspitagrS, Prthvl, Mandakranta, Maiini, Batboddbata, Vaitallya, VaisVadevI, Sftlini and
HarinI See Kressler , op. cii.t p. 48,
GNOMIC, DIDACTIC AND SATIRIC POEMS i97
Of satire, or satiric verses in the proper sense, Sanskrit has
very little to show. Its theory of poetry and complacent attitude
towards life precluded any serious cultivation of this type of
literature. Invective, lampoon, parody, mock-heroic or
pasquinade — all that the word satire connotes — were outside
the sphere of the smooth tenor and serenity of Sanskrit artistic
compositions ; and even in the farce and comic writing the
laughter, mostly connected with erotic themes, is hardly keen
or bitter. They may touch our sense of comedy, but rarely our
sense of satire, for the arrant fools and downright knaves are
objects not of indignant detestation but of mild ridicule. Some
amount of vivid realism and satirical portraiture will be found
in the early Bhanas, as well as in the stories of Dandin, but
they seldom reac|j the proportion and propriety of a real satire.
The earliest datable work of an erotico-comic, if not fully
satiric, tendency is the Kuttanl-mata1 or 'Advice of a Procuress '
of Dfimodaragupta, which in spite of its ugly title and unsavoury
subject, is a highly interesting tract, almost creating this
particular genre in Sanskrit. The author was a highly respectable
person, who is mentioned by Kahlana as a poet and minister
of Jayapida of Kashmir (779-813 A.D.), and the fact that his
work is quoted extensively in the Anthologies, as well as by
Mammata, Hemacandra and others, bears testimony to its high
literary reputation. The theme is slight. A courtesan of
Benares, named Malati, unable to attract lovers, seeks advice
of an old and experienced bawd, Vikarala, who instructs her to
ensnare Cintamani, son of a high official, and describes to her
in detail the cunning art of winning love and gold. To
strengthen her discourse, Vikarala narrates the story of the
courtesan Haralata and her lover Sudarsana, in which the
erotic and the pathetic sentiments intermingle, as well as the
1 Ed. Durgapraaad in Kavyamala, Gnochtka iii, NSP, Bombay 1887; but with ampler
materials, ed. Tanaaukhram Manaasukhram Tripathi, with a Sanskrit commentary, Botabay
1U24. Trs. into German by J. J. Meyer, Leipzig 1903.
19d HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
tale of the dancing girl Manjari and king Samarabhata of
Benares, in which Manjari gives an enactment of Har§a's
Ratndvall and succeeds by her beauty and blandishments to win
much wealth from the prince and leave him impoverished. With
graceful touches of wit and humour, delicate problems in the
doctrine of love are set forth; and in spite of the obvious grossness
of its dangerous content, the work does not lack elegance of treat*
ment, while the characters, though not wholly agreeable, are
drawn with considerable skill and vividness from a direct obser-
vation of certain social type,^. The pictures are doubtless
heightened, but they are in all essentials true, and do not present
mere caricatures. The chief interest of the work lies in these
word-pictures, and not in the stories, which, though well told, are
without distinction, nor in the subject-matter^ which, though
delicately handled, is not above reproach.
Although the Kuttanl-mata displays a wide experience of
men and things, it is based undoubtedly upon a close study
of the art of Erotics, the Vaisika Upacara or VaisikI Kala,
elaborated by Vatsyayana and Bharata for the benefit of the raan-
about-town and the courtesan ; but, on this ground, to reject it
lightly as mere pornography is to mistake the real trend of the
lively little sketch. There is indeed a great deal of frankness,
and even gusto, in describing, in no squeamish language, the
art and mystery of satisfying the physical woman; and the
heroines of the stories are made the centres of coarse intrigues.
Modern taste would perhaps -regard all this as foul and fulsome ;
but there is no proof of moral depravity. On the contrary, the
moral depravity, perhaps of his own times (as we learn from
Kahlana), is openly and amusingly depicted by the author, not
with approval, but with object of making it look ludicrous. As
in most cpmic writings in Sanskrit, the erotic tendency prevails,
and there is not much direct satire. But, even if his
scope is narrow, Damodaragupta is a real humourist, who
does not seek to paint black as white but leaves the
question of black and white for the most part alone. At the
GNOMIC, DIDACTIC AND SATIRIC POEMS 199
conclusion of his poem, he tells us that any one who reads it
will not fall victim to the deceit of rogues, panderers, and
procuresses ; but his work is not a mere guide-book for the
blind, the weak and the misguided. It is a work of art in which
there is no didactic moralising, but which is characterised by
direct and animated, but not merciless, painting of droll life,
essentially of the higher grades of society. The poet sees two
kinds of men in all walks of life— rogues and fools ; but he
neither hates the one nor despises the other. The result is
comedy rather than satire, not virtuous indignation but enter-
taining exposure of human frailty. Damodaragupta is a perfect
artist in words and also a poet ; and the facetious style, couched
in slow-moving and serious Arya stanzas, is eleganlly polished,
yet simple and direct in polite banter and power of gentle
ridicule. There is hardly anywhere any roughness or bitterness ;
and the witty, smooth and humorous treatment makes the work
unique in Sanskrit. If the atmosphere is squalid, it is not
depressing, but amusing. Damodaragupta is daring enough to
skate on thin ice, but he has balance and lightness to carry him
through ; and if his onset is not biting, it is not entirely tooth-
less. That the extraordinary coarseness of his subject never
hindered the popularity of his work with men of taste and
culture is a tribute to its innate literary merit. But we shall
see that later authors like Kseraendrn, also a TCnshmirian, in
trying to imitate him without his gifts, lapsed into bald
realism, acrid satire or unredeemed vulgarity. The difficult type
of literature, thus inaugurated, had great possibilities, but it
never developed properly in Sanskrit.
CHAPTER Y
SUCCESSORS OF KALIDISA IN PEOSE AND DRAMA
1. THE PROSE KAVYAS OF DANDIN, SUBANDHIT AND BANA
a. General Remarks
The peculiar type of prose narrative, which the Sanskrit
theory includes under the category of Katha and Akhyayika, but
which, on a broader interpretation, has been styled Prose Romance
or Kunstroman, first makes its appearance, in this period, in a
fully developed form in the works of Dandin, Subandhu and Bana.
But the origin of this species of literature is shrouded in greater
obscurity than that of the Kav\a itself, of which it is presumed
to be a sub-division We know at least of A^vaghosa as a prede-
cessor who heralded the poetic maturity of Kalidasa, but of the
forerunners of Dandin, Subandhu and Bana we have little infor-
mation. The antiquity of this literature is undoubted, but no
previous works, which might have explained the finished results
diversely attained by these authors, have comedown to us. We
have seen that the Akhyayika is specifically mentioned by Katya-
yana in his Varttika ; and Patailjali, commenting on it, gives
the names of three Akhyayikas known to him, namely, Vasava-
datta, Sumanottara and Bhaimarathi ; but we know nothing
about the form and content of these early works. The very title
of the Brhatkatha and the designation Katha applied to the
individual tales of the Pancatantra, one of whose versions is also
called Tantrdkhyayika, indicate an early familiarity with the
words Katha and Akhyayika, but the terms are apparently** used
to signify a tale in general, without any specific technical conno-
tation.1 We know nothing, again, of the Carumati of Vararuci,
1 The Katha and the Skhyayika are mentioned in Mahabhdrata ii. 11. 88 (Bomb. Ed.), but
Wiiitermtz has shown (JRAS, 1903, pp. 571-72) that the stanza is interpolated.— The Sanskrit
ikhyayika, as we know it, has no similarity to Oldenberg's hypothetical Vcdic XJchyana;
SUCCESSORS OF KALIDASA IN PROSE 201
from which a stanza is quoted in Bhoja's &rhgara-'praka6a, nor of
the tfudraka-katha (if it is a Katha) of Kalidasa's predecessor
Somila (and Bamila), nor of the Tarahgavati of Srlpalitta,1 who
is mentioned and praised in Dhanapala's Tilakamanjarl and
Abhinanda's Rama-carita as a contemporary of Hala-Satavahana.
Bana himself alludes to the two classes of prose composition,
called respectively the Katha and the Akhyayika, clearly intimat-
ing that his Harsa-carita is intended to be an AkhyayikS and his
Kadambari a Katha. He also offers a tribute of praise to writers
of the Akhyayika who preceded him, and refers, as Subandhu
also does,2 to its division into chapters called Uccbvasas and to
the occurrence of Vaktra metres as two of its distinguishing
characteristics. Bana even mentions Bhattara Haricandra, to us
only a name, as the author of a prose composition of high merit ;
to this testimony the Prakrit poet Vakpati, in the 9th centuryA
subscribes by mentioning Haricandra along with Kalidasa,
Subandhu and Bana.
It seems clear, therefore, that Bana is no innovator, nor is
Haricandra the creator of the Prose Kavya, which must have
gradually evolved, with the narrative material of the folk-tale,
under the obvious influence of the poetic Kavya during a con-
siderable period of time. But an effort3 has been made to prove,
for in the Akhyayika the prose is essential and the verse negligible. See Keith in JRASt
1911, p. 979 for full discussion and references.
1 This is obviously the Dharraa-katha or Jaina religious story, called Tarangavati, of
SrI-padalipta or Siri-palitta, who is already mentioned as Tarangavatikara in~tbe Anuogaddra,
and therefore must have flourished before the 5th century A. D. The scene of the story is laid
at grftvasti in the time of Udayana ; but the work is lost. Its romantic love-story, however,
is preserved in the Tarahgalold, composed in Prakrit verse in 1643 A. D. According to
E. Leumann, who has translated the Tarahgahld (Miinchen 1921), Sri-padalipta lived as early
as the~2nd or 3rd century A. D. There is a tradition that he lived in the time of Salivabana.
A MS dfcthe Prakrit work is noticed in the Descriptive Cat of MSS in the Jaina Bhandar at
Pattan by L. B. Gandhi (G08, Baroda 1937), introd., p. 58.
* Ed. F. Hall, p. 184.
3 Weber in SB A W, XXXVII, p. 917 and Ind. Stud., XVIIT, p. 456 f ; Peterson introd.
to Kadambari, 2nd ed., Bombay 1889, pp. 101-04. But Lac6te ccmea to the opposite conclusion
of the borrowing by the Greek romance from the Sanskrit ! See discussion of the question
by L. H, Gray, introd. to Vasavadatta (cited below), p. 86 f; Keith in JRAS, 1914, p. 1108;
1915, p. 784 f , HSLt p. 865 f ; and Winternitz, GIL, III, p. 371 f .
202 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
% adducing parallels of incident, motif and literary device, that
the Sanskrit romance was directly derived from the Greek. Even
admitting some of the parallels, the presumption is not excluded
that they might have developed independently, while the actual
divergence between the two types, in form and spirit, is so great
as to render any theory of borrowing no more than a groundless
conjecture. The Sanskrit romance, deriving its inspiration
directly from the Kavya, to which it is approximated both by
theory and practice, is hardly an exotic ; it is differentiated from
the Greek romance by its comparative lack of interest in the
narrative, which is a marked quality of the Greek romance, as
well as by its ornate elaboration of form and expression,1 which
is absent in the naivete and simplicity of the Greek stories. It
is true that the fact of difference need not exclude the possibility
of borrowing ; but, as in the case of the drama, no substantial
fact has yet been adduced, which would demonstrate the positive
fact of borrowing by Sanskrit.
So far as the works of the rhetoricians are concerned, the
earliest forms of the Katha and the Akhyayika are those noticed
by Bbamaba and Dandin.2 In the Akhyayika, according to
Bhamaha, the subject-matter gives facts of actual experience, the
narrator being the hero himself ; the story is told in pleasing
prose, divided into chapters called Ucchvasasand containing metri-
cal pieces in Vaktra and Aparavaktra metre, indicative of future
happening of incidents ; scope may be allowed to poetic inven-
tion, and the theme may embrace subjects like the abduction of
a maiden (Kanya-harana), fighting, separation and final triumph
of the hero ; and it should be composed in Sanskrit. In the
1 The Greek romance his, no doubt, a few specific instances of rhetorical ornaments,
such as hom&iteleul a, parisosis, alliteration and strained compounds, but they are not com-
parable to those in the Sanskrit romance, which essentially depends on them. There is
hardly anything in Greek corresponding to the picaresque type of story which we find in
1 * i fta, on this question, 8. K. De, The Akhyayika and the Katha in Ol&Mical Sanskrit in
QSOS, III, 1M5, p, 60747 ; also J, Nobel, op. cit., p. 156 f,
SUCCESSORS OF KlLIDiSA IN PROSE 203
Katha, on the other hand, the subject-matter is generally an
invented story, the narrator being some one other than the hero ;
there is no division into Ucchvasas, no Vaktra or Aparavaktra
verses ; and it may be composed either in Sanskrit or in
Apabhram^a . It will be seen at once that the prototypes of this
analysis are, strictly, not the two prose narratives of Bana, nor
those of Dandin and Subandhu, but some other works which have
not come down to us. It is worth noting, however, that the
older and more rigid distinctions, embodied by Bhamaha, were
perhaps being obliterated by the innovations of, bolder poets ; and
we find a spirit of destructive criticism in the Kavyadar£a of
Dandin, who considers these refinements not as essential, but as
more or less formal requirements. Accordingly, Dandin does
not insist upon the person of the narrator, nor the kind of metre,
nor the heading of the chapter, nor the limitations of the linguis-
tic form as fundamental marks of difference. This is apparently
in view of current poetical usage, in which both the types were
perhaps converging under the same class of prose narrative, with
only a superficial difference in nomenclature. It must have
been a period of uncertain transition, and Dandin's negative
criticism (as also Vamana's brushing aside of the whole
controversy) implies that no fixed rules had yet been evolved
to regulate the fluctuating theory or practice relating to them.
It is clear that the uncertain ideas of early theorists, as well
as the extremely small number of specimens that have survived,
does not give us much guidance in definitely fixing the nomen-
clature and original character of the Sanskrit Prose Kavya.
Nevertheless, the whole controversy shows that the two kinds of
prose narrative were differentiated at least in one important
characteristic. Apart from merely formal requirements, the
Akhyayika was conceived, more or less, as a serious composition
dealing generally with facts of experience and having an auto-
biographical, traditional or semi-historical interest ; while the
Katha waa essentially a fictitious narrative, which may sometimes
(as Dancjin contends) be recounted in the first person, but whose
204 HIST6RV OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
chief interest resides in its invention.1 These older types appear
to have been modified in course of time ; and the modification
was chiefly on the lines of the model popularised by Bana in his
two prose Kavyas. Accordingly we find Budrata doing nothing
more than generalising the chief features of Bana's works into
rules of universal application. In the Akhyayika, therefore, Rudrata
authorises the formula that the narrator need not be the hero
himself, that the Ucchvasas (except the first) should open with
two stanzas, preferably in the Arya metre, indicating the tenor
of the chapter in question, and that there should be a metrical
introduction of a literary character. All these injunctions are in
conformity with what we actually find in Bana's Harsa-carita.
The Katha was less touched by change in form and substance,
but the erotic character of the story, consisting of the winning
of a maiden (Kanya-labha), and not abduction (Kanya-harana)
of the earlier theorists, was expressly recognised ; while,
in accordance with the prevalent model of the Kadambarl, a
metrical introduction, containing a statement of the author's
family and motives of authorship, is also required. This
practically stereotypes the two kinds in Sanskrit literature. It is
noteworthy, however, that later rhetoricians do not expressly
speak of the essential distinction based upon tradition and fancy,
although they emphasise the softer character of the Katha by
insisting that its main issue is Kanya-labha, which would give
free scope to the delineation of the erotic sentiment.
It is obvious that the prescriptions of the theorists are in-
teresting historical indications of later developments, but they do
not throw much light upon the origin and early history of the
Sanskrit Prose Kavya. In the absence of older material, the
problem is difficult and does not admit of a precise determination.
There can hardly be any affinity with the beast-fable of the
Paftcatantra type, which is clearly distinguishable in form,
' The old lexicon of Ainara also accepts (i. 6. 5-6) this distinction when it says : akhya*
yikopalabdharthd, and prabandhakalpand kath&t
SUCCESSORS OF KALID1SA IN PROSE 205
content and spirit ; but it is perhaps not unreasonable to assume
that there was an early connexion with the popular tale of heroes
and heroines, including the fairy tale of magic and marvel. This
appears to be indicated by the very designation of the Brhatkatha
as a Katba and the express mention of this work as a Katha by
Dandin ; and the indication is supported by the suggestion that this
early collection was drawn upon by Dandin, Subandhu and Bana.
If this is granted, a distinction should, at the same time, be made ;
for the Brhatkatha, in conception and expression, was apparently
a composition of a different type. The available evidence makes
it more than probable that the popular tale never attained any of
the refinement and elaboration which we find in the prose
romance from its beginning, — in a less degree in Dandin and in
more extravagant manner in Subandhu and Bana. From this
point of view, the prose romance cannot be directly traced back
to the popular tale represented by Gunadhya's work ; its imme-
diate ancestor is the ornate Kavya itself, whose graces were
transferred from verse to prose for the purpose of rehandling and
elaborating the popular tale. It is not known whether the new
form was applied first to the historical story and then employed
to embellish the folk-tale, as the basis of the distinction between
the Akhyayika and the Katha seems to imply; but it is evident
that the prose romance was evolved out of the artistic Kavya and
influenced by it throughout its history. The theorists, unequivo-
cally and from the beginning, include the prose romance in the
category of the Kavya and regard it as a kind of transformed
Kavya in almost every respect, while the popular tale and the
beast-fable are not even tardily recognised and given that status.
It seems probable, therefore, that the prose romance bad a
twofold origin. It draws freely upon the narrative material
of the folk-tale, rehandles some of its natural and super-
natural incidents and motifs, adopts its peculiar emboxing
arrangement of tales and its contrivance of deux ex machina,
and, in fact, utilises all that is the common stock-in-trade
of the Indian story-teller. But its form and method of
206 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
story-telling are different, and are derived essentially from the
Kavya. Obviously written for a cultured audience, the
prose romance has not only the same elevated and heavily orna-
mented diction, but it has also the same enormous development
of the art of description. In fact, the existing specimens com-
bine a legendary content with the form and spirit of a literary
tour de force. The use of unwieldy compounds, incessant and
elaborate puns, alliterations and assonances, recondite allusions
and other literary devices, favourite to the Kavya, receive greater
freedom in prose; but stress is also laid on a minute description
of nature and on an appreciation of mental, moral and physical
qualities of men and women. From the Kavya also comes its
love-motif, as well as its inclination towards erotic digressions.
Not only is the swift and simple narrative of the tale clothed
lavishly with all the resources of learning and fancy, but we find
(except in Dandin's Dasakumara-carita) that the least part of the
romance is the narrative, and nothing is treated as really important
but the description and embellishment. From this point of view,
it would be better to call these works Prose Kavyas or poetical
compositions in prose, than use the alien nomenclature Prose
Eomances, which has a connotation not wholly applicable.
The evolution of the peculiar type of the Prose Kavya from
the Metrical Kavya, with the intermediary of the folk-tale, need
not have been a difficult process in view of the fact that the
term Kavya includes any imaginative work of a literary character
and refuses to make verse an essential. The medium is im-
material ; the poetical manner of expression becomes important
both in prose and verse. If this is a far-off anticipation of
Wordsworth's famous dictum that there is no essential distinction
between verse and prose, the direction is not towards simplicity
but towards elaborateness. In the absence of early specimens
of imaginative Sanskrit prose, it is not possible to decide whether
the very example of the Prose Kavya is responsible for this
attitude, or is itself the result of the attitude ; but the approxi-
mation of the Prose Kavya to the Metrical Kavya appears to have
DANDTN 207
been facilitated by the obliteration of any vital distinction between
literary compositions in verse and in prose. But for the
peculiar type of expository or argumentative prose found in tech-
nical works and commentaries, verse remains throughout the
history of Sanskrit literature the normal medium of expression,
while prose retains its conscious character as something which
has to compete with verse and share its rhythm and refinement.
At no period prose takes a prominence and claims a larger place ;
it is entirely subordinated to poetry and its art. The simple,
clear and yet elegant prose of the Paiicatanlra is considered too
jejune, and never receives its proper development ; for poetry
appears to have invaded very early, as the inscriptional records
show, the domain of descriptive, romantic and narrative prose.
An average prose-of-all-work never emerges, and even in tech-
nical treatises pedestrian verse takes the place of prose.
b. Dandin
The Da£akumara-carita l of Dandin illustrates some of the
peculiarities of the Sanskrit Prose Kavya^ mentioned above, but it
does not conform strictly to all the requirements of the theorists.
This disregard of convention in practice may, with plausibility,
be urged as an argument in support of the identity of our Dandin
with Dandin, author of the Kavyadar6a, who, as we have seen
above, also advocates in theory a levelling of distinctions. But
from the rhetorician's negative account no conclusive inference
1 Ed. H.H. Wilson, London 1846 ;ed. G. Bdhler and P. Peterson, in two pts., Bon, bay
1887, 1801, revised in one vol. by G. J. Agasbe, Bombay 1919; witb four comms.
(Padacandrika, Padadfpika, Bhusana and LaghudTpika), ed. N. B. Oodabole and Vasudeva
L. Pansikar, NSP, lOtb ed., Bombay 1925. (1st ed. with two comm., 1888; 2nd ed.
witb tbree comm., 1889V Trs. into English (freely) by P. W. Jacob (Hindu Tales),
London 1873, revised by C. A. Rylands, London 1928 ; by A. W. Ryder, Chicago 1927.
Trs. into German by J. J. Meyer, Leipzig 1902, and by J. Hertel, in Ind. Erz&Mer 1-3,
Leipzig 1902; trs. into French by H. Fauche in Une Tirade, ou drame, hymne, roman et
poeme, ii, Paris 1862. Editions with Engl. trs. also published in India by M. R. Kale,
Bombnv 1926, apd by C. Sankararama Sastri, Madras 1931t
208 " HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
is possible, and the romancer may be creating a new genre
without consciously concerning himself with the views of the
theorists.) The problem of identity cannot be solved on this
slender basis alone ; and there is, so far, no unanimity nor im-
pregnable evidence on the question. Some critics are satisfied
with the traditional ascription of both the works to one Damjin,1
and industriously search for points to support it. However good
the position is, errors in traditional ascription are not rare and
need not be final. On the other hand, the name Dandin itself,
employed to designate a religious mendicant of a certain order,
may be taken as a title capable of being applied to more than one
person, and therefore does not exclude the possibility of more
than one Dandin. A very strong ground for denying identity of
authorship is also made out 2 by not a negligible amount of
instances in which Dandin the prose-poet offends against the
prescriptions of Dandin the rhetorician. It is a poor defence
to say that a man need not practise what he teaches; for the
question is more vital than mere mechanical adherence to rules,
but touches upon niceties of diction and taste and general outlook.
\The presumption that the DaSakumara belongs to the juvenilia of
Darujin and the Kavyadar£a is the product of more mature
judgment is ingenious, but there is nothing immature
in either work.j The general exaltation of the Vaidarbba
Marga in the Kavyadartia and its supposed illustration in the
DaSakumara supply at best a vague argument, which
need not be considered seriously. That both the authors were
Southerners is suggested, but not proved ; for while the indica-
tions in the Kavyadar$a are inconclusive, there is nothing to
show that, apart from conventional geography,8 the author of
the romance knows familiarly the eighteen different countries
1 The attribution of three works to Dandin by Bajafokhara and the needless conjee-
tares about them are no longer of much value; see 3. E. De, Sanskrit Poetics, I, p. 62 note
andp 72.
* Agaahe, op. ctf., pp. xxv-xxxv.
3 Bee Mark Collins, The Geographical Data of the Rayhuvamta and the Da^akumdra-
carita (Diss.), Leipzig 1907 f p. 46.
DAN DIN 209
mentioned in the course of the narrative. The geographical items
of the Datakumara only reveal a state of things which existed
probably in a period anterior to the date of Halrsavardhana's
empire,1 and suggest for the work a date much earlier than what
is possible to assign to the KavyadarSa. It is true that the time
of both the works is unknown ; but while the date of the
Kavyadar£a is approximated to the beginning of the
8th century,2 there is nothing to show that the DaSakumara cannot
be placed much earlier.8 The use of rare words, grammatical
solecisms and stylistic peculiarities of .the Da£akumara again,
on which stress is sometimes laid for a comparatively late date,
admit of an entirely opposite, but more reasonable, explanation
of an early date, which is also suggested by the fact that the
romance has certainly none of the affected prose and developed
form of those of Subandhu and Bana. (The picture of the
so-called degenerate society painted by Dandin is also no argument
for a late date; for it would apply equally well to the Mrcchakatika
and the Gaturbhan'i, the earlmess of which cannot be
daubted and to which the Da$akumara bears a more than
superficial resemblance in spirit, style and diction.4
1 Maik Collins, op. fit., p. 9 f.
2 S K De, Sanskrit Poeticat1t p 58 f, in spita of Keith'd advocacy (Indian Studies
in honour of Lanman, Cambridge Mas*., 19*29, p. 167 f) of an earlier date for the Kavyad'irta
on the ground of Dandin's priority to Bhamahi. This is not the place to enter into the
reopened question, but there is still reason to believe that the presumption of Bhamaha's
priority will survive Keith's strenuous onslaught.
3 The alleged relation of Bharavi to Dandin of the Datakumti ra° (see S. K De in
IHQ I, p. 31 f; III, p. 395-96) ; G. Harihara Saatri in ibid, III, pp. 169-171), would place
him towards the close of the 7th and beginning of the 8th century A. D.,~ a date which is
near enough to that of Dandin of the Kavyftdarta ; but the reliability of the account is not
beyond question (see Keith, HSL, preface, p. xvi).
4 Weber (Indische Streifen, Berlin 1868, pp. 311-15, 353), Meyer (op. cit.. pp. 120*27}
and Collins (op. eifc., p. 48) would place. Da/a7rwmfira° some time before 585 A.D. In
discussing the question, however, it is better not to confuse the issue by presuming beforehand
the identity of the romancer and the rhetorician. Agashe's impossible dating at the
llth or 12th century ia based on deductions from very slender and uncertain data. The fact
that the DaSakumfaa in not quoted in the analogical literature before the llth century or
that adaptations in the vernacular were not produced before the 13th, are arguments from
silence which do not prove much. Agaahe, however, does not rightly accept the worthies*
27—1848B
210 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Dafakumara-carita, in its present form, shows, with
Bana's two romances, the peculiarity of having been left
unfinished, biit it also lacks an authentic beginning. ) The end is
usually supplied by a Supplement in four Ucchvasas, called
Uttara-pithika or Sesa, which is now known to be the work of
a comparatively modern Deccan writer named Cakrapani
Diksita,1 son of Candramauli Diksita; but a ninth or concluding
Ucchvasa by Padmanabha 2 and a continuation by Maharaja-
dhiraja Goplnatha3 are also known to exist. (The beginning is
found similarly in a Prelude, called Purva-pithika,4 in five
Ucchvasas, which is believed on good grounds to be the work of
some other hand than that of Dandin. ) The title Dafakumara-
carita suggests that we are to expect accounts of the adventures
of ten princes, but the present extent of Dandin's work proper
contains, with an abrupt commencement, eight of these in eight
Ucchvasas. The Purva-pithika was, therefore, obviously intended
to supply not only the framework of the stories but also the
missing stories of two more princes ; while the Uttara-pithika
undertakes to conclude the story of Visruta left incomplete in the
last chapter of Dandin's work. Like the Uttara-pithika, the
Purva-pithika, which was apparently not accorded general
acceptance, exists in various forms,6 and the details of the tales
legend, relied upon by Wilson, which makes Dandin an ornament of the court of Bhoja
The reference to Bhoja-vaqiB** in Ullasa viii (ed. Agashe, p. 129) does not support this
hypothesis, for Kalidasa also uses the name Bhojax, referring probably to the rulers of
Vidtrbba.
1 Eggeling, Ind. Office Cat., vii, no. 4069/2934, p. 1553.
2 Agashe, op. cit.t p. xxiv.
3 Wilson, introd., p. 80; Eggeling, op. cit.t vii, no. 4070/1850, p\ 1554.
4 Some MSS (e.g. India Office MS. no. 4059/2694; Rggeliug, op. cit., vii, p 1561) and
some early editions (e.g., the Calcutta ed. of Madan Mohan Tarkalamkar, 1849) do not contain
the Purva-pithika. The ed. of Wilson and others include it. Wilson ventured the conjecture
that the Prelude is the work of one of Dandia's disciples; but iu view of the various forms
in which it if now known to exist and also because it is missing in some MSS, this
conjecture must be discarded. Some of the versions are also obviously late productions.
* The version, which begins with the solitary benedictory stanza brahmanda-cchatra.
dofitfa* and narrates, in five Ucchvisas.the missing stories of the two princes Puspodbbava and
8o«n*dstta, along with that of the missing part of the story of Bfriavahana and his lady-toy*
211
do not agree in all versions nor with the body of Dandin's
genuine text.
(So far as Dandin's own narrative goes, each of the seven
princes, who are the friends and associates of the chief hero,
Eajavahana, recounts his adventure, in the course of which each
carves out his own career and secures a princely spouse. But
the work opens abruptly with an account of Rajavahana, made
captive and led in an expedition against Cainpa, where in the
course of a turmoil he finds all the rest of his companions. By
his desire they severally .relate their adventures, which are
comprised in each of the remaining seven chapters. The
rather complex story of Apaharavnrnmn, which comes
in the second Ucehvasa, is one of the longest and best in
the collection, being rich in varied incidents and interesting
chiracters. The seduction practised on the ascetic Marici by
the accomplished courtesan, Kamamanjari, who also deceives the
merchant 'Vastupala, strips him to the loin-cloth and turns him
into a Jaina monk ; the adventure in the gambling house; the
ancient art of thieving1 in which the hero is proficient ; the
punishing of the old misers of Cainpa who are taught that the
goods of the world are perishable ; the motif of the inexhaustible
purse ; all these, described with considerable humour and vivid-
ness, are woven cleverly into this tale of the Indian Kobin Hood,
Avantiaundari is the usually accepted Prelude, found in moat MSS. and printed editions. Its
spurious character has been shown by Agaghe. It is remarkable that the usual metrical
beginning required by theory at the outset of a Katba or Akhyayika is missing here. The
benedictory stanza however, is quoted anonymously in Bhoja's Sarasvatl-kan^Jidbharana
(ed. Borooah, 1884, p. 114) ; the fact would indicate that this Prelude must have been pce6xed
at least before llth century. Another Prelude by Bhatfca Narayana is given in App. to
Agashe's ed., while still another in verse by Vinayaka in three chapters is noticed by
Eggeling, op. cit.t vii, no. 40871/686a, p. 1553. M. ft Kavi published (Madras 1924) a
fragmentary Avantisundarl-kathd in prose (with a metrical sumrmry called *Katha-$ara),
which is ascribed to Dandin as the lost Purva-plthika of his romance, but this 19 quite
implausible; see 8. K. De in IHQ I, p. 31 f and III, p. 394 f.
1 On the art of thieving,, sec Bloomfield in Amer. Journ. of Philology, XLIV, 1923,
pp. 97-193, 193-229 and Proc. of the Amer. Philosophical Soc., LIT, pp 61G-650 On burglnry
as a literary theme, see L. H. Gray in WZKM, XVIII, 1904, pp 50-51. Sarvilaka in tfce
is also a scientific thief, with hi* paraphernalia, like Apaharavarman.
HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
who plunders the rich to pay the poor, unites lovers and reinstates
unfortunate victims of meanness and treachery. The next
tale of Upaharavarman is not equally interesting, but it is not
devoid of incident and character ; it is the story of the recovery of
the lost kingdom of the hero's father by means of a trick, includ-
ing the winning of the queen's favour, murder and pretended
transformation1 by power of magic into the dissolute king who bad
usurped. The succeeding story of Arthapala is very similar in
its theme of resuscitation of his father's lost rank as the disgraced
minister of the king of Kasi, and incidental winning of Princess
Manikarnika, but it has nothing very striking except the pretend-
ed use of the^device of snake-charm. The fifth story of Pramati
introduces the common motif of a dream-vision of the Princess
Navamalika of Sravasti, and describes how the hero, in the dress
of a woman, contrives (by the trick of being left as a deposit) to
enter the royal apartments and have access to the princess ; but
it also gives an incidental account of the somewhat unconven-
tional watching of a cock-fight by a Brahman ! The sixth story
of Mitragupta, who wins Princess KandukavatI of Damalipta in
the Suhma country, is varied by introducing adventures on the
high seas and on a distant island, and by enclosing, after the
manner of the Vetala-pancavim£ati, four ingenious tales,
recounted in reply to the question of a demon, namely, those of
Bhumini, Gomini, Nimbavati and Nitambavati, all of which illus-
trate the maxim that cunning alone is the way to success. The
seventh tale of Mantragupta is a literary tour de force, in which
no labial letters are used by the narrator, because his lips have
been made sore by the passionate kisses of his beloved. It begins
with the episode of a weird ascetic and his two ministering
goblins, repeats the device of pretended transformation through
magic into a murdered man, and places the incidents on the sea-
coast of Kalinga and Andhra, The last incomplete narrative of
1 On the art of entering another's body as a fiction- motif, see M. Blootofield in Proc,
American Philosophical Soe.t LVI, 1917, pp. 1-48.
Vi^ruta relates the restoration of the hero's proteg6, a young
prince of Vidarbha, to power by a similar clever, but not over-
scrupulous, contrivance, including the ingenious spreading of a
false rumour, the use of a poisoned chaplet and the employment
of a successful fraud in the name and presence of the image of
Durga ; but the arguments defending idle pleasures, which speak
the language of the profligate of all ages, as well as the introduc-
tion of dancers and jugglers and their amusing sleight of hand,
are interesting touches.
It will be seen at once that Dandin 's work differs remark-
ably from such normal specimens of the Prose Kavya as those
of Subandhu and Bana ; and it is no wonder that its unconven-
tionality is not favoured by theorists, in whose rhetorical treatises
Dandin is not cited till the llth century A.D.CjThe DaSakumara-
carita is rightly described as a romance of roguery. In this
respect, it is comparable, to a certain extent, to the Mrcchakutika,
which is also a drama full of rascals,) and to the four old Blianas,
ascribed to Syamilaka, Isvaradatla and others; but rascality is
not the main topic of interest in Sudraka's drama, nor is the
Bhana, as a class of composition, debarred by theory from dealing
with low characters and themes of love, revelry and gambling.
.Dandin's work, on the other hand, derives its supreme flavour
from the vivid and picturesque exposition of such characters and
themes.) Although the romantic interest is not altogether want-
ing, and marvel and magic and winning of maidens find a place,
it is concerned primarily with the adventures of clever tricksters.
(Dandin deliberately violates the prescription that the Prose
Kavya, being a sub-division of the Kavya in general, should have
a good subject (Sada^raya) and that the hero should be noble and
high-souled. Gambling, burglary, cunning, fraud, violence,
murder, impersonation, abduction and illicit love form, jointly
and severally, the predominating incidents in every story;) and
Mantragupta's definition of love as the determination to Assess
— de I'audace in Danton's famous phrase — is indeed typical
of its erotic situations. Wilson, with his mid-Victorian
214 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
sense of propriety, speaks of the loose principles and lax
morals of the work, and the opinion has been repeated in a
modified form by some modern critics ; but the point is over-
looked that immorality, rather than morality, is its deliberate
theme. £jhe Dasakumara is imaginative fiction, but it approaches
in spirit to the picaresque romance of modern Europe, which
gives a lively picture of rakes and ruffians of great cities.) (It is
not an open satire, but the whole trend is remarkably satirical in
utilising, with no small power of observation and caricature, the
amusing possibilities of incorrigible rakes, unscrupulous rogues,
hypocritical ascetics, fraudulent priests, light-hearted idlers, fervent
lovers, cunning bawds, unfaithful wives and heartless courtesans,
who jostle with each other within the small compass of the swift and
racy narratives./ The scenes are accordingly laid in cosmopolitan
cities where the scum and refuse of all countries and societies
meet. Even the higher world of gocls, princes and Bralunans
is regarded with little respect. The gods are brought in to
justify disgraceful deeds in which the princes engage themselves ;
the Buddhist nuns act as procuresses ; the teaching of the Jina
is declared by a Jaina monk to be nothing but a swindle ; and
the Brahman's greed of gold and love of cock-fights are held up
to ridicule. Two chief motives which actuate the princes of wild
deeds are the desire for delights of love and for the possession of
a realm, but they are not at all fastidious about the means they
employ to gain their ends. Their frankness often borders on
cynicism and, if not on a lack of morality, on fundamental non-
morality.
lit is a strange world in which we move, life-like, no doubt,
in its skilful portraiture, but in a sense, unreal, being sublimated
with marvel and magic, which are seldom dissociated from folk-
tale.1) We hear of a collyrium which produces invisibility, of a
captive's chains transformed deliciously into a beautiful nymph,
of burglar's art which turns beggars into millionaires, and of
magician's charms which spirit away maidens. JThis trait appears
to have been inherited from the popular tale, and Darwjin's
DANDIN 215
indebtedness to the Brhatkatha has. been industriously traced. 1
But the treatment undoubtedly is Dandin's own. ) He is success-
ful in further developing the lively elements of the popular tale,
to which he judiciously applies the literary polish and sensibility
of the Kavya ; but the one is never allowed to overpower the
other. The brier of realism and the rose of romance are cleverly
combined in a unique literary form. In the laboured composi-
tions of Subandhu and Bana the exclusive tendency towards the
sentimental and the erotic leads to a diminishing of interest in the
narrative or in its comic possibilities. JThe impression^ that one
receives from Dandin's work, on the other hand, is that it delights
to caricature and satirise certain aspects of contemporary society
in an interesting period. Its power of vivid characterisation
realises this object by presenting, not a limited number of types,
but a large variety of individuals, including minor characters not
altogether devoid of reality and interest.) There can be little
doubt that most of these are studies from life, heightened indeed,
but faithful ; not wholly agreeable, but free from the touch alike
of mawkishness and affectation, fit is remarkable that in these
pictures the realistic does not quench the artistic, but the merely
finical gives way to the vividly authentic. IF ^We pass) from
pageantry to conduct, from convention to impression, from abs-
traction to fact.) There are abundant instances of tie author's
sense of humour, his wit and polite banter, his power of gentle
satire and caricature, which effectively contribute to the realism
of his outlook. ) For the first time, these qualities, rare enough
in the normal Sanskrit writing, reveal themselves in a literary
form, and make Dandin's delightfully) unethical/) romancero
picaresco,(not a conventional Prose Kavya, but a distinct literary
creation of a new type in Sanskrits
There is more matter, but the manner has no difficulty in
joining hands with it. Dandin's work avoids the extended'scale
and leisurely manner of proceeding, the elaborate descriptive and
1 Agaabe, op. n't., p. xh f,
216 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
sentimental divagations, tfce eccentricities of taste and extrava-
gance of diction, which are derived from the tradition of the
regular Kavya and developed to its utmost possibilities or im-
possibilities in the imaginative romances of Subandhu and Bana.
The arrangement of the tales is judicious, and the comparatively
swift and easy narrative is never overloaded by constant and
enormous digressions. The episodic method is old and forms
a striking feature of Indian story-telling, but in the Da&akumara
the subsidiary stories never beat out, hamper nor hold up the
course oi the main narrative. Even the four clever stories in
the sixth Ucchvasa are properly emboxed, and we are spared the
endless confusion of curses and changing personalities and stories
within stories. ,
Not only Dandin's treatment, but also (his style and diction
are saved from the fatal fault of over-elaboration by his sense of
proportion and restraint. He is by no means an easy writer,
but there are no fatiguing complexities in his diction ; it is
energetic and yet elegantly articulated/ It is not marked by any
inordinate love for disproportionate compounds and sesquipedalian
sentences, nor by a weakness for far-fetched allusions, complex
puns and jingling of meaningless sounds. The advantage of such
a style, free from ponderous construction and wearisome em-
bellishment, is obvious for the graphic dressing up of its un-
conventional subjects of a cheat, a hypocrite, an amorist or a
braggadacio ; and the Kavya- refinements would have been wholly
out of place. Occasionally indeed Dandin indulges in florid
descriptions, such as we find in the pictures of the sleeping
Ambalika or the dancing Kandukavati, but even in these cases he
keeps within the limits of a few long sentences or only one printed
page. There is an attempt at a literary feat in the avoidance of
labial sounds in the seventh Ucchvasa, but it is adequately
motived ; and Dandin wisely confines himself to a sparing use of
such verbal ingenuity. It is not suggested that Dandin makes no
pretension to ornament, but, in the main, his use of it is effective,
limited and pretty, and not recondite, incessant arid tiresome,
8UBANDHU 217
highest praise goes to Dandin as the master of vigorous and
elegant Sanskrit prose ; and his work, in its artistic and social
challenges, is undoubtedly a unique masterpiece, the merits of
which need not be reluctantly recognised by modern taste for
not conforming to the normal model. I
c. SUBANDHU
In theory and accepted practice, the normal type o{ the
Prose KSvya is illustrated, not by the work of Dandin, but by
those of Subandhu and Bana. In these typical Prose Kavyas,
however, there is less exuberance of life, the descriptions are
more abundant and elaborate, the narrative is reduced to a
mere skeleton, learning loads the wings of fancy, and the style
and treatment lack ease and naturalness. They have no ruffian
heroes, nor dubious adventures, but deal with chaste and noble,
if somewhat sentimental and bookish, characters. They employ
all the romantic devices, derived from folk-tale, of reborn heroes
and transformed personages in a dreamland of marvellous but
softer adventure, and present them in a gorgeous vehicle of
elaborately poetical, but artificial, style.
The date of Subandhu, author of the Vasavadatta,1 is not
exactly known. Attempts have been made to establish its upper
and the lower terminus, respectively, by Subandhu's punning
allusion, on the one hand, to the Uddyotakara 2 and a supposed
work of Dlmrmakirti," belonging at least to the middle of the
1 Ed. P. Hall, Bibl. InJ., with comm. of Siv<mlina Tripatbin, Calcutta 1859, reprinted
ilmoat verbatim by J. Vidyasagar, Calcutta 1S74, 3rd ed. 1907 ; ed. R. V. Krishnama-
ihariar with his own comm., Sri Yani-vilasa Press, Srirangatn 1906; ed. Louis
3. Gray, in roman characters, Columbia University Press, New York 1913. Sivarama
>elon*s to the 18rti century ; see S K. De, Sanskrit Poetics, I, p. 318. There is also an earlier
somm. of Jagaddhara which deserves publication.
2 nyaya-sthitim (v. 1. -vidy&m) ivoddyotakara-svarupam (ed. Hall, p. 235; ed.
Srirangam, p, 803; ed. Gray, p. 180).
8 bauddha-sawgatim (v. 1. sat-kavi-kavya-racanam) ivalatiikara-bhujitam, he. cit.
!t is remarkable that the reading is not found in all Mss (Hall, p. 236), and no work of
^barmaklrti's called BauddhasarpgatyalaipkSra has yet been found. L*vi (Bulletin de
'E'cole Francis d'Extrime-Orient, 1903, p. 18) denies that Subandhu alludes to Dharmaklrti's
iterary activity.
28— 1343B
218 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
sixth century A.D., and, on the Bother, by Bana's allusion to a
Vasavadatta, which is supposed to be the same as Subandhu's
work of that name, in the preface to his Harsa-carita,1 composed
early in the seventh century.2 But it must be recognised that
the question is not free from difficulty, Neither the date of
Dharmakirti nor that of the Uddyotakara can be taken as
conclusively settled; nor is it beyond question, in the absence of
the author's name, that Bana really alludes to Subandhu's work.
Even if the early part of the 7th century is taken to be
the date of Dharmakirti and the Uddyotakara, it would make
Subandhu a contemporary of Bana. The traditional view that
Bana wrote his romance to surpass that of Subandhu probably
arose from Bana's qualification of his own Kadamban (st, 20)
by the epithet ati-dvayl ' surpassing the two,' these two being,
according to the very late commentator,8 Subandhu's Vasavadatta
and Gunadhya's Brhatkatha. But the doubt expressed,4 though
later abandoned,5 by Peterson has been lately revived. Since the
arguments on both sides of the question 6 proceed chiefly on the
1 Stanza 11. The argument that Bana, by the use of Sle?a in this stanza, mean* to
imply Subandhu's fondness for it, is weak; for Bana usea Slesa also in the stanzas on Bbasa
and the Brhatkatha.
8 Among other Inerary or historical allusions made by Subandhu, the reference to
Vikramaditya and Kanka in the tenth introductory stanza bus been made the basis of entirely
problematic conjectures by Hall (p. 6), Hoernle (JRAS, 1903, p. 545f) and B. C. Mazumdar
(JRAS, 1907, p. 406f); see L, H. Gray, introd., p. 8f. The description of Kusumapura and
Subandbu's practice of the Gaud! Biti may suggest that he WAS an eastern writer, but the
geography of the work is too conventional and the argument on Biti too indefinite to be
decisive. There are two other punning allusions by Subandhu, apparently to a Gana-karika"
with a Vrtti by Surap&la (cd. Srirangam, p. 314) and an obscurely mentioned work by
Kamalfikara-bhikgu (p. 319); but these have not yet been sufficiently recognised and traced.
1 Bh§nudatta, the commentator, belongs to the 16th century. But the phrase ati-dvayl
is not grammatically correct, and the reading appears to be doubtful. Possibly it is a
graphical scribal error for aniddhaya (qualifying dhiya) read by other commentators (c/. OLD,
IV, no. 2, 1941, p. 7).
* Inirod. to Kadamban, pp. 71-73. * Introd. to Sbhv, p. 183
* See Kane, introd. to Har$a>carita> p. xif ; Weber, Inditche S tret fan,
Berlin 1868, I, pp. 369-86; Telang in JBRAS XVIII, 1891, p. 147f; W. Cartellieri in
WZKM> I, 1887, pp. 115-3i; F. W. Thomas in WZKM, XII, 1898, pp. 21-33f
alto in JRAS, 1920, pp. 386.387; Mankowski iu WZKMt XV, 1901, p. 246f'
Keith in JftAS, 1914 (arguing that Subandhu cannot be safely ascribed to a period substantially
SUBANDHU
debatable grounds of the standard of taste and morals, and of style
and diction, it is scarcely possible to express a final opinion
without being dogmatic. The only one characteristic difference
of Subandhu's prose from that of Bana, apart from its being
uninspiring, is the excessive, but self-imposed, use of
paronomasia (Slesa); but this argues neither for priority nor
posteriority, but only suggests the greater currency of this figure
of speech in this period. The only certain point about
Subandhu's date is the fact that in the first half of the
8th century, Vakpati in his Prakrit poem Gaudavaho (at. 800)
connects Subandbu's name with those of Bhasa, Kalidasa and
Haricandra, and a little later in the same century, Vamana quotes
anonymously l a passage which occurs, with a slight variation, in
Subandhu's Vasavadatta. 2
With the Vasavadatta of the Udayana legend, made famous .
by various poets in Sanskrit literature, Subandhu's romance has
nothing common except the name ; and since the story, as told by
Subandhu, does not occur elsewhere in any form, it appears to be
entirely invented and embellished by our poet. But the plot is
neither rich nor striking. The handsome prince Kandarpaketu,
before 650 A.D.); Sivaprasad Bhattacharya iti IHQ, IV, 1929, p. 699f.— There is one passage
to wh cb attention does appear to have been drawn, but it is no less important, it describes
the passionate condition of Vasavadatta at the sight of Kandarpaketu and runs thus :
hrdayam vtlikhttam iva utkirnam ivat pratyuptam iva, kllitam iva vajralepa-gha^itam
iva marmantara-sthitam iva, which appears to be reproduced in a metrical form in the
following three lines from Bhavabhuti's Malati-madhava (v. 10) :
lineva pratibimbiteva hkhitevotkirna-riipeva ca
pratyupteva ca vaJTalepa-ghatitevantaTmkhdteva ca \
sa na£ cetasi ktliteva vitikhaiS cetobhuvah paftcabhih...
The verbal resemblance cannot be dismissed as accidental; but considering that BhavabhQti
here improves upon what he weaves into the texture of his poem and also the fact that
Bhavabhuti is known to have borrowed phrases from Kllidasa, the presumption of borrowing
on the part of Bhavabhuti is likely.
1 Kavyalarpk&ra i. 3.26 (kuli£a-sikhara'khara'nakhara°) = V&savadattd, ed, Sriraran-
gaiu, p. 3S1 and ed. Hall, p. 226.
2 For other references to Subandhu and his work see Gray, pp. 34. Gray is right in
thinking that the reference in the DaMtimSra* to Vasavadatta clearly alludes to the story of
Udayana and Vas«vadatt&, and not to Vasavadatta of Subandhu '0 romance.
HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
son of Cintaraani, beholds in a dream a lovely maiden; and,
setting out with his friend Makaranda in search of the unknown
beloved and resting at night in the Vindhya hills under a tree, he
overhears the conversation of a couple of parrots that princess
Vasavadatta of Pataliputra, having similarly dreamt of Kandarpa-
ketUj has sent her pet parrot, Tamalika, to find him. With the
help of the kindly bird, the lovers unite ; but as Srngarasekhara,
father of the princess, plans her marriage with a Vidyadhara
chief, the lovers elope on a magic steed to the Vindbya bills.
Early in the morning, while Kandarpaketu is still asleep, Vasava-
datta, straying into the forest, is chased by - two gangs of
Kiratas ; but as they fall out and fight for her, she eludes tbem
but trespasses into- a hermitage,' where she is turned into stone
by the curse of the unchivalrous ascetic. Kandarpaketu, deterred
from self-destruction by a voice from the sky, finds her after a
a long search, and at his touch the curse terminates.
It will be seen that the central argument of such tales is
weak and almost insignificant. The general scheme appears to
consist of the falling in love of a passionate hero with a heroine
of the fair and frail type, and their final union after a series of
romantic adventures, in which all the narrative motifs * of dream-
vision, talking parrots, magic steed, curse, transformation and
voice in the air are utilised. But the interest of the story-telling
lies not in incident, but in minute portraiture of the personal
beauty of the lovers and their generous qualities, their ardent,
if sentimental, longing for each other, the misfortune obstruct-
ing the fulfilment of their desires, their pangs of thwarted love,
and the preservation of their love through all trials and difficul-
ties until their final union. All this is eked out lavishly by the
romantic commonplaces of the Kavya, by highly flavoured
descriptions of cities, battles, oceans, mountains, seasons, sunset,
inoonrise and the like, and by the display of enormous Sastric
2 A list of these are made out by Cartellieri, op. cit. For a study of these motifs as
literaiy devices see Gray in WZKM , XVIII, 1904, p. 89f.
SUBAKDHU 22l
learning and technical skill. Subandhu's poverty of invention
and characterisation, therefore, is not surprising ; and criticism
has been, not unjustly, levelled against the absurdities and incon-
sistencies of his story. But the slenderness of the theme is not so
much a matter of importance to Subandhu as the manner of
developing or over-developing it. Stress has been rightly laid
on his undoubted, if somewhat conventional, descriptive power ;
but the more than occasional descriptive digressions, forming the
inseparable accessory of the Kavya, constitute the bulk of bis
work, and are made merely the means of displaying his luxuriant
rhetorical skill and multifarious learning. The attractiveness of
the lady of Kandarpaketu's vision, for instance, is outlined in a
brief sentence of some one hundred and twenty lines only ! The
wise censure of Anandavardhana 1 that the poets' are often regard-
less of theme and sentiment and exceedingly engrossed in verbal
tricks is more than just in its application to the Prose Kavya of
this type.
It must, however, be said to Subandhu's credit that
he is not overfond of long rolJing compounds, and even when
they occur, they are not altogether devoid of majesty and melody.
When he has no need for a long sentence, he can write short
ones, and this occurs notably in the brief dialogues. The sound-
effects are not always tedious, nor his use of words always
atrocious. What becomes wearisome in its abundance is
Subandhu's constant search for conceits, epithets and similes
expressed in endless strings of paronomasia (Slesa) and apparent
incongruity (Virodhabhasa). For this reason, even his really
coruscating ideas and images become more brilliant than lumi-
nous. When we are told that a lady is rahta-pada like a
grammatical treatise, her feet being painted with red lacquer as
sections of grammar with red lines, or that the rising sun is
blood- coloured, because the lion of dawn clawed the elephant of
the night, we are taken to the - verge of ludicrous fancy ; but
1 Dhvanyaloka, ed. NSP, Bombay 1911, p. 161.
HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
9
such instances abound from page to page.1 In a stanza, the
genuineness of which, however, is doubted, Subandhu describes
his own work as a treasure-bouse of literary dexterity, and
declares that he has woven a pun in every syllable of his com-
position. We hrtve indeed the dictum of the KavyadarSa (ii. 362)
that paronomas i generally enhances the charm of all poetic
figures, and the extraordinary resources of Sanskrit permit its
effective use, but the rhetorician probably never means that the
paronomasia should overshadow everything. The richness of
Subandhu's fancy and his ingenuity in this direction is indeed
astonishing and justifies his boasting ; but it cannot be said that
he has flsed this figure with judgment or with the sense of
visualisation which makes this, as well as other, figures a
means of beautiful expression. Subandhu's paronomasias are
often far-fetched and phantas-rnagoric, adduced only for the
sake of cleverness, and involve much straining and even torturing
of the language. It is true that in the stringing together of puns
Subandhu does not stand alone. Bana also makes much use
pf it, and refers to this habit of the Katha when he describes
it as nirantara-6lesa-ghana. But Bana never indulges in
unceasing fireworks of puns and other devices, and his poetic
imagination and power of picturesque description make
ample amends for all his weakness for literary adornment.
Subandhu, on the other hand, lacks these saving graces ; nor
does he command the humour, vigour and variety of Dandin. He
becomes, therefore, a willing victim of the cult of style, which
believes that nothing great can be produced in the ordinary way.
In order to appreciate Subandhu's literary accomplishment
this fact should be borne in mind ; and it ia as unnecessary as it
is hypercritical either to depreciate or exaggerate his merits
unduly. It should be conceded that, in spite of its fancy, pathos
and sentiment, Subandhu's work is characterised by an element
* Kriftbcamacbariar has given (op. ctt., p. xixf) an almost exhaustive list of instances
of 8ab»odtm'0 verbal accomplishment.
SUBANDHU 223'
of mere trick which certainly impairs its literary value ; but it
should not be assumed that it is a stupendous trifle, which
enjoyed a fame and influence disproportionate to its worth. Bana
is doubtless a greater poet and can wield a • wonderful spell of
language, but Subandhu's method and manner of story-telling do
not differ much from those of Bana, and conform to the general
scheme of the Prose Kavya. But for his excessive fondness for
paronomasia, Subandhu's style and diction are no more tyranni-
cally mannered than those of Bana ; and parallelisms in words
and ideas have been found in the respective works of the two
poets. It is true that Subandhu's glittering, but somewhat cold,
fancy occupies itself more with the rhetorical, rather than with
the poetical, possibilities of his subject ; but making allowance
for individual traits, one must recognise the same technique and
paraphernalia in both Subandhu and Bana. They deal with the
self-same commodities ; and if richness of vocabulary, wealth of
description, profusion of epithets, similes and conceits, and
frequency of learned allusions are distinctive of Subandhu, they
are also found in Bfuia. Whatever difference there is between
the two romancers, it is one not in kind but in degree.
It would appear, therefore, that both Subandhu and Bana
exhibit in their works certain features of the Sanskrit prose
narrative which, being of the same character, must have belonged
to the general literary tendency of the time. The tendency is
not so apparent in Dandin, but in Subandhu and Bana it is
carried to its extreme ; and we find, more or less, a similar
phenomenon in poetry, as we pass from Bharavi to Magha. It
is, however, a facile explanation which puts it down to incom-
petence, bad taste or queer mentality ; the question has a deeper
historical significance, perhaps more in prose than in poetry.
Louis H. Gray calls attention to certain stylistic similarities
between Subandhu's Vasavadatta and Lyly's Eupheus ; but if
there is any point in drawing a parallel, it lies precisely in the
fact that the work of the Sanskrit stylist, like that of the
Elizabethan mannerist, is a deliberate attempt to achieve a riehA
224 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
variegated and imaginative prose style, although like all deli-
berate attempts it is carried to fantastic excess. The ornate and
fanciful style tends to the florid and extravagant, and needs to be
restrained and tamed ; but the plain style inclines equally towards
the slipshod and jejune, and needs to be raised and inspired.
The plain style, evidenced in the Pancatantra, is indeed well
proportioned, clear and sane, and is suitable for a variety of liter-
ary purpose, but it is ill fitted for fanciful, gorgeous or passion-
ate expression ; it is constantly liable, when not used with
something more than ordinary scholarship and taste, to degene-
rate into commonness or insipidity. Neither Subandhu nor
Bana may have evolved a properly ornate style, suitable for
counteracting these perils and for elevated imaginative writing,
but their inclination certainly points to this direction. It is not
the rhetorical habit in these writers which annoys, but their use
of rhetoric, not in proportion, but out of proportion, to their
narrative, description, idea or feeling. Perhaps in their horror
of the commonplace and in their eagerness to avoid the danger of
being dull, they proceed to the opposite extreme of too heavy
ornamentation, and thereby lose raciness, vigour and even sanity ;
but for this reason the worthiness of their motive and the
measure of success which they achieved should not be missed.
We have an interesting illustration here of what occurs every-
where, namely the constantly recurring struggle between the
plain and the ornate style ; but in trying to avoid plainness,
these well-meaning but unbalanced writers practically swamp it
with meaningless ornateness, by applying to prose the ill-fitting
graces and refinements of poetry. The gorgeous standard, which
they set up, is neither faultless nor easy to follow, but it is curi-
ous that it is never questioned for centuries. It is a pity that
their successors never realise their literary motive, but only
exaggerate their literary mannerisms. It was for <the later writers
to normalise the style by cutting down its early exuberant excesses,
but it is strange that they never attempted to do so. Perhaps they
fell under the fascination of its poetical magnificence, and were
BANABHATTA 225
actuated by the theory which approximated prose to poetry and
affiliated the prose Kavya to the metrical. There has never been,
therefore, in the later history of Sanskrit prose style, a real ebb
and flow, a real flux between maxima and minima. It is for
this reason perhaps that the perfect prose style, which keeps the
golden mean between the plain and the ornate, never developed in
Sanskrit.
There is, thus, no essential difference of literary inspiration
between Subandhu and Bana ; only, Subandhu's gifts are often
rendered ineffectual by the mediocrity of his poetic powers.
There is the sameness of characteristics and of ideas of workman-
ship; but while Subandhu often plods, Bana can often soar.
The extreme excellence, as well as the extreme defect, of the
literary tendency, which both of them represent in their indivi-
dual way, are, however, better mirrored in Bana's works, which
reach the utmost limit of the peculiar type of the Sanskrit prose
narrative.
d. Bdnabhatta
( In the first two and a half chapters of his Harsa-carita and
in the introductory stanzas of his Kadambarl,1 Banabhatta
gives an account of himself and his family as prelude to that of
his royal patron A He was a Brahman of the Vatsyayana-gotra,
his ancestry being traced to Vatsa, of whom a mythological
account is given as the cousin of Saradvata, son of SarasvatI and
Dadhica. In the family was born Kubera, who was honoured
by many Gupta kings, and whose youngest son was PaSupata.
Pagupata's son was Arthapati; and among the many sons of
Arthapati, Citrabhanu was Bana's father. They lived in a place
called Pritikuta on the banks of the Hiranyabahu, otherwise known
1 The accounts a^ree, except ]in one omission, namely, the name of Bana 'ft great-grand-
father, PMupata, is not found in the Kadambari. For a recent summary of all relevant
questions regarding Bana and his works, as well as for a full bibliography, see A. A. Maria
Sharpe, B ana's K&dambari (Diss.. N. V. de Vlaamsche, Leuven 1937), pp. 1-108, which also
contains Dutch trs. of work, with indices and concordances,
89-1948B
226 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
as the river Sona. Bana's mother Rajyadevi died while he was yet
young, but his father took tender care of him. When he was
about fourteen, his father died; and in the unsettled life which
followed, Bana wandered about from place to place, mixed in
dubious company, acquired evil repute as well as rich experience,
returned home and lived a life of quiet study. He was summoned
to the presence of king Harsavardhana, ostensibly for being taken
to task for his misspent youth, at his camp near the town of
Manitara on the Ajiravati. He was at first received with cold-
ness, but afterwards with much favour.1 After some time, on a
visit home, Bana was requested by his relatives to speak of the
great king. He began his narrative, after having warned his
audience of his inability to do full justice to his theme. The story
is told in the remaining five Ucchvasas, but it is left unfinished.
It was possibly never his intention to offer a complete account;
for he tells us that even in a hundred lives he cannot hope to
recount the whole story of Har^a's mighty deeds, and asks his
audience if they would be content to hear a part.2
We have already spoken of the value of the important
metrical preface to the(ffarsa-can£a/)which speaks of the famous
literary predecessors of Bana. .JThe story begins with a descrip-
tion of SthanvJgvara and of the glorious kings, sprung from
1 It is not known tt what stage of Harsa's career Bana met him. It is assumed that
Bin* was fairly young when Harsa in his greatness patronised him) and that there is no
reason to presume that Bana wrote in the early part of Harsa *s reign, which ended in 647 -A. D.
Bana never alludes to troubles of poverty among oth^r troubles he mentions in Uochvasa i,
and we are also toll that he inherited wealth from his ancestors. He acknowledges gifts
from his patron, but there is nothing to support the legend that he sold some of his literary
works to Harsa.
* The earliest quotation from BSna, though anonymous, occurs in Vamana's
K&vyalamkara (2nd half 'of the 8th century) v. 2. 44, anukaroti bhagavato ndrdyanasya
( =Kadajnbarit td, Peterson, p. 6), In the middle of the 9th century, Bana and his two
works are nwtjtimied by Inandavardbana in his Dhranyahka (ed. NSP, pp. 87, 100,
101,127). " ' v^fc M • ,,
8 Ed* A> ^^^P";wft)l C0mm' °f Strpkara' Bombl Skt" Ser" 1909 ; ed- K- p- Parab>
with same comm^^^pKlpbay 1892 (6th ed. 1925) ; ed. P. V. Kane (without comm. but with
notes, etc.), BombaflllL Trs. into English by E. B. Cowell and F.W. Thoznas, Ix)ndoii 1907,
BiNABHATTA 22?
Puspabhuti, from whom is descended Hanjavardhana's father,
Prabhakaravardhana. Harsa's elder brother is Kajyavardhana ;
and his sister KajyaSrI is married to Grahavarman of the
Maukhari family of Kanyakubja. Then we have a more brilliant
than pathetic picture of the illness and death of Prabhakara-
vardhana, whose queen Yasomati also ascends the funeral pyre,
of the return of Kajyavardhana from his successful campaign
against the Hunas, and of his reluctance to ascend the throne.
But before Harsa could be installed, news reaches that the king
of Malava has slain Grahavarman and imprisoned Rajyafri.
Eajyavardhana succeeds in defeating the Malava king, but he is
treacherously killed by the king of Gauda. Harsa's expedition
to save his sister follows, but in the mean time^he escapes from
prison and is rescued by a Buddhist sage. The story abruptly
ends \\ith the meeting of Harsa and Rajya^ri while the tale of
her recovery is being told. The work gives us nothing about the
later career of Harsa, nor any information regarding the later
stages of Bana's own life./
V The Harsa-carita has the distinction of being the first
attempt at writing a Prose Kavya on an historical theme.1)
Subandhu's Vasavadatta, as well as Bana's other prose narrative,
the Kadambarl, deals with legendary fiction, and everything is
viewed in these works through a highly imaginative atmosphere.
The Harsa-carita is no less imaginative, but the author takes his
own sovereign as his hero and weaves the story out of some actual
events of his career. In this respect it supplies a contemporary
picture, y hi ch, in the paucity of other records, is indeed valuable;
but its importance as an historical document should not be
overrated. The sum-total of the story, lavishly embellished
as it is, is no more than an incident in Harsa's career ; and it
cannot be said that the picture is either full or satisfactory
from the historical point of view. Many points in the narra-
tive, especially the position, action and identity of the Malava
i See below, ch. VI, under Poema with Hiitoricti Theoie*.
228 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
and the Gauda kings, are left obscure ; and the gorgeously
descriptive and ornamental style leaves little room for the poor
thread of actual history. Even if the work supplies picturesque
accounts, into which the historian may profitably delve, of the
actualities of life in camp and court, in monastery and village
retreat, of military expeditions, and of social and religious
observances and practices, we learn very little indeed of the
political facts of the great emperor's reign as a whole.
\It is clear that Bana writes his Harsa-carita more as a
romantic story than as a sober history of the king's life, and stops
when he is satisfied that his Muse has taken a sufficiently long
flight./ The term ' Historical Kavya,' which is often applied to
this and other ^works of the same kind, is hardly expressive ;
for, in all essential, the work is a Prose Kavya, and the fact of
its having an historical theme does not make it historical in
style, spirit and treatment. The reproach that India had little
history and historical sense is perhaps not entirely just, but
India was little interested in historical incident as such, and
never took seriously to chroniclining, much less to what is known
as history in modern times. The uncertainties of pre-history,
therefore, continue in India to a comparatively late period ; and
it is also important to note that the idea of evolution is, in the
same way, scarcely recognised in the sphere of thought and
speculation. Perhaps the explanation is to be sought in the
psychology of the Indian mind, which takes the world of
imagination to be more real than the world of fact ; perhaps we
in modern" times attach too much importance to fact or incident
and make a fetish of history or evolution. In any case, history
had little place in the Kavya, which apparently considered the
mythological heroes to be more interesting than the actual
rulers of the day. Even when a real personage is taken for
treatment, as in the case of Har§a, he is elevated and invested
with all the glory and some of the fiction of the mythological
hero. The Sanskrit theory of art also, in its emphasis on
imaginative and im personalised creation, encouraged abstraction,
B&NABHATVA 229
admitted belief in fate and miracle, and had little feeling for the
concrete facts and forces of human nature and human life. The
same spirit, which tended against the creation of a vigorous and
sensitive drama, stood also in the way of clear and critical
historiography. The poets who, like Bana, write on histori-
cal themes, never claim merit ;is historians, but conceive their
duty to be that of a poet. It would not be proper, therefore,
to attach the qualification ' historical ' to what is essentially a
Kavya.
The imposition of keeping even within the semblance of
fact is absent in the Kadambarl, which is an entirely imagina-
tive creation, but which like the Harsa-carita, is also left
unfinished. It was, however, 
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